Hot Cop Next Door: A Steamy Older Man Younger Woman Romance Read online

  Hot Cop Next Door

  Mia Madison

  Hot Cop Next Door

  Copyright © 2017 by Mia Madison

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  This wasn’t exactly my brightest idea.

  “Uh, Mandy? What the hell is that?”

  “This? These are anal beads.”

  Correction: This was my worst idea ever.

  My best friends’ brows were raised expectantly so I forced myself to choke out a strained, “I-I see. Thanks.”

  Her hand was still holding up the package of beads when her expression softened into something alarmingly close to pity. It was the last thing I wanted from her, so I turned away and searched for another item I could question her about.

  Which pretty much included the entire store.

  A virgin working in a sex toy shop. It was like the start of a bad joke.

  “Jessa...”

  “W-What’s this? It says—” I cut off abruptly and felt my cheeks go red as the name of the packaging and the round hole in the center finally clicked. “Oh. Never mind.”

  I couldn’t even manage to summon up a mental image of a man using his hand on himself, let alone one of those. The more I looked around, the more I felt like I wasn’t going to be able to do this. I was completely overwhelmed.

  “Jessa, look at me.” Mandy waited until I turned toward her before placing her hands on her hips and fixing me with a stern look. “Don’t you back out on me now. Not after all the begging I did to get you the job.”

  “I’m not backing out, I just—”

  “You can do this, Jess. There are always two employees here at a time. The most interaction you’ll have with customers is ringing them up.”

  The way she described it sounded as ideal as the situation could get. I knew I was fully capable of doing the job, but there was something else that was seriously bothering me.

  “How do you handle seeing someone you know? If you ever do,” I added, wondering what the chances were I’d recognize a customer. I couldn’t remember seeing another adult shop in town, so I had a bad feeling it would eventually happen.

  “Oh, you’d be surprised,” Mandy said with a cryptic little chuckle that I absolutely loathed. “Best thing to do? Unless they say something to you, pretend like you’ve never seen them before. Seriously—just give them a totally blank face and the same ‘have a nice day’ smile that you’d give a stranger.”

  “And when I see them outside of work?”

  “Act like nothing has changed. Like you never saw them and whatever depraved porno they bought. Never happened.”

  “It’s that simple?”

  “It’s that simple,” she confirmed with a grin. The curve of her lips was short-lived, however, and soon her nose scrunched up in distaste as she added, “Well, most of the time.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Mandy finally hung the beads back on the rack and vaguely gestured toward the vast selection of dildos as she whispered, “It’s one thing to pretend not to have seen a family friend buying a dirty movie. It’s another to pretend like you didn’t bag up a double-ended dildo for a former teacher.”

  My jaw dropped in shock as she turned away and headed for the counter. I couldn’t help myself. I was mentally going through all of the teachers we shared in the past and wondering which one it could have been.

  The sick curiosity must have been written all over my face because Mandy commented, “Don’t bother. You won’t guess it and I’m not telling.”

  “Fair enough,” I said with a sigh. “Besides, it’s probably better if I don’t know.”

  “Another piece of advice? Try to start schooling your reactions. This is a judgment-free zone.”

  I leaned my elbows against the counter with a huff as I studied her opening the cash register, filing away the information for later use.

  “I wasn’t judging. I just... I don’t understand what half of this stuff is for.”

  “Only half?” she joked with a snort. “More like ninety percent.”

  “Hey! I’m not completely out of the loop, you know?”

  “No? What’s this?”

  She held up a very small package, purposely keeping it out of reach so I couldn’t read the label. All I could make out was a rubber ring and I nearly rolled my eyes.

  “It’s a condom.”

  “Wrong.”

  The package came flying my way. I frowned as I snagged it out of the air and read the label. My face flushed immediately.

  “Say it.”

  “No way.”

  “Say it, Jess!”

  “I-I’m not! I don’t even know what this is for!”

  “Say it and I’ll tell you,” she teased in a sing-song voice.

  “Cock ring!” I shouted far louder than intended. Thank God the store hadn’t opened yet. I lowered my voice as I demanded, “Now tell me what the point of it is.”

  “Men put it on the base of their cock when they don’t want to blow too quickly.” There was a brief pause before a devious smile appeared on her face and she added, “Or you could put it on a man if you wanted to have some extended fun.”

  “Fun? You mean... sex.”

  “Amongst other things.”

  Another cryptic response that I didn’t know how to take. Fabulous. How did I manage to make it through college with such a limited idea of sex?

  Living on my own and avoiding it at all costs was probably to blame. Party Friday night? Can’t make it. I’ve got a paper due on Monday. You want to take me on a date? Sorry, I’ve got a shift at the coffee shop.

  My parents paid my rent during college and I focused hard on studying and getting phenomenal grades to thank them for it. I also picked up part-time jobs as often as I could to pay the rest of my bills by myself.

  What I never admitted out loud was that all the responsibility I took on was just a cover to allow me to remain an introvert. I wanted excuses not to do anything with my peers. With the exception of Mandy—a lifelong friend—I didn’t want to hang out with anyone.

  I was even worse when it came to men. I could barely recall the last crush I had on a classmate. His name was Phillip—that much I did remember—but his last name had long since faded from memory. Considering I was twelve years old at the time, it wasn’t that surprising.

  Of course, that was just my last crush on a peer. My last crush altogether was a totally different story—something so secret I never even told Mandy. I suspected she figured it out on her own long ago, but she was a good enough friend to not bring up the sensitive subject.

  “You ready for this?”

  Snapping out of my thoughts, I focused on her excited face bef
ore stealing a glance at the clock behind her. Five minutes until the store opened.

  “Oh crap,” I muttered, straightening my clothes out of habit. “I’m so nervous. Do I look okay?”

  “You look like you should be working in an accountant’s office or something.”

  “Is that a compliment?”

  “Oh, totally. Very polished. Clean.”

  Her reassurance aside, I still couldn’t tell if it was a compliment or not. It definitely sounded more like a critique. She buzzed around the register area while I frowned down at my crisp white shirt and pencil skirt.

  “I thought there was a dress code,” I mumbled pitifully as I finally took in the fact that she was wearing jeans and a black tank top.

  “Dress code? Ha! Just wait until you get paired up with Mona.” Mandy laughed and gestured to the door. “Would you flip the switch on the sign and unlock the door? I need to grab a roll of quarters. Be right back.”

  The sign was easy enough to do, but after I figured out how to unlatch the bolt and unlock the doors, the loud beeping of the security system forced me to cover my ears and call for Mandy. She rushed out of the back room with a curse and quickly typed in the code to disarm the system. Once the beeping stopped, she turned to me with a sheepish smile.

  “Whoops. I knew I forgot something. I’ll write down the code for you.”

  “That’d be swell.”

  Mandy grabbed a sticky note and jotted down a six-digit number, handing it to me with a serious expression.

  “Don’t lose this. If the alarm gets tripped by accident you’ve got sixty seconds to enter the code.”

  “What happens after sixty seconds?”

  “The police get notified. It’s not a big deal—it happens every now and then—but it’s a hassle for them and us. Just hold on to the code and you’ll be fine.”

  She smiled and strolled back the way she came from, leaving me to stare at the brightly-lit open sign with a weird sense of foreboding.

  What exactly was I getting myself into?

  Chapter 2

  My first week of work was mostly uneventful. Mandy and the other coworkers I met seemed to be having a little too much fun teasing me when the shop was barren of customers, but I took it in stride.

  If the shoe was on the other foot, I imagined I’d partake in the teasing as well. Since none of it felt malicious, I laughed along with quite a few of the jokes.

  The biggest event of the week came during my off hours Wednesday night. My parents called out of the blue to tell me they were heading to Europe for a month-long vacation. They bribed me with the use of my mom’s car in exchange for getting their mail and feeding Sugar.

  A month of not feeling like a burden for hitching rides almost every day? Talk about a no-brainer.

  Mom and Dad dropped by my apartment early Friday morning. I drove them from there to the airport before heading back home to tidy up before I had to get ready for work.

  Even though I had toned down on the formal work attire, it was still shocking as hell to get to the shop later that day and meet Mona for the first time.

  “You the new girl?” she asked with a grunt. Her eyes scanned me head to toe and a grin spread across her lips. “Christy wasn’t kidding. You really are a virgin.”

  “H-Hey!”

  “Don’t get your panties in a twist, I’m just teasing. You gotta admit it’s pretty damn weird to see a priss like you wanting to work in a sex shop.”

  Mandy gave me a vague warning about Mona the day before, but she didn’t come close to accurately describing the brash woman standing behind the counter.

  Rough around the edges seemed like a gross understatement to me.

  “I need the money,” I said solemnly, refusing to look at her as I stepped behind the counter and went to drop my bag in the back.

  Mona wasn’t letting me go that easily. She called, “So you don’t actually want to be here, is that it?”

  I froze. It was a question I’d been asking myself all week. So far I was loving working with my best friend and the others weren’t bad either. There wasn’t a problem with my coworkers—at least not yet.

  However, I was still extremely embarrassed pretty much all the time. Stocking shelves was fine because my humiliation was private, but the manager—Christy—had already reprehended me once about not looking people in the eye while working the register.

  I was terrified to see someone I knew. I was even more terrified to see someone my parents knew.

  What would they say if they knew? Mom would probably splutter in confusion and Dad would be outraged that I ‘lowered myself’ to this. Would their answer be any different if they knew this job was the only thing keeping me from losing my apartment?

  Doubtful. They either would have offered to pay the rent for me or insisted I move back in with them. Neither option appealed to me in the slightest. The answer was simple.

  “I want to be able to pay my bills without relying on my parents. So... Yes. I do want to be here.” I nodded firmly—more to myself than to her—before the hesitation crept back in. “It’s just... I wasn’t making enough to cover everything at the coffee shop I was working at and this isn’t exactly a comfortable environment for me. I’m doing my best.”

  By the time I finished, I was surprised to find Mona leaning against the door frame of the back room. Her arms were crossed over her chest but there was a look on her face that could only be described as... impressed.

  “I get that. Well, welcome to the team.”

  “Oh, uh... Thanks,” I said with a small smile. Maybe Mandy was right after all. Mona wasn’t so bad. “It means a lot.”

  She smiled and shifted on her feet. I’d been staring so hard at her face that I didn’t even notice just how short her skirt was and how tall her platform boots were. Whoa. With the outfit, the black hair, and the piercings littered around her face—Mona looked like a rock star.

  “What’s with the look?”

  “Are you in a band?”

  “No,” she slowly drawled, one eyebrow rising in amusement. “But some might refer to me as a groupie. It wouldn’t be that far of a stretch.”

  “Oh.”

  Ignoring my confused look, she said, “Speaking of which... There’s a show I’m going to tonight and I wanted to cut out an hour early. Can you close the store by yourself yet?”

  “Um, sure. Mandy taught me how to lock everything up.”

  “Wicked. I promise I’ll return the favor if you ever need it.”

  With that, Mona marched out of the room with the grace of a bulldog and more confidence than I ever had. It was incredible how self-assured she seemed to be. As I stepped behind the counter and watched her open the shop, I couldn’t help but wonder how much of that confidence came from sex.

  If I opened myself up more, would my confidence grow? Would working in this kind of environment eventually help loosen me up a little?

  “I guess I’ll find out,” I muttered as the bell over the door signaled the first customer of the day.

  I tried to meet the man’s eyes and smile, but my fear and embarrassment quickly made me turn away.

  Oh well. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

  Nearly seven hours later, Mona was impatiently answering a customer’s questions and glancing at the clock every five seconds. The phone rang and I answered with the standard greeting, only to be cut off mid-sentence.

  “Yo, where’s Mona?”

  “She’s helping a customer. Can I take a message?”

  “Tell her to call Bobby before she comes to get me.”

  “Um... Who is me?”

  “Jake. Just tell Mona to call Bobby ASAP. You got paper?”

  “Yeah, one sec...” I trailed off as I dug the block of sticky notes and a pen out from behind the register. “Go ahead.”

  I jotted the number down and read it back to him, making sure I didn’t screw it up. He hung up without so much as a goodbye and I frowned at the receiver as I put it down. Mona’s attention wa
s still focused on the customer, but she was clearly getting more and more irritated.

  “Listen, lady. You don’t want that one,” she abruptly said, snatching the packaged dildo from the woman’s hands and pointing at another. “You want silicone. It’s safer and you can wash that shit in the dishwasher. I know it’s more expensive than the jelly one, but your pussy will thank you for it.”

  My eyes went wide. How could Mona think it was okay to speak to a customer like that? Surely this woman was going to blow a gasket.

  … Or she would just smile and grab the sixty-dollar dildo from the shelf. Her mouth opened to ask something, but Mona somehow predicted the question.

  “Don’t use a silicone or oil-based lube with this, you understand? That’s not good for it. You want a lube that’s water-based. This one is my personal favorite.”

  Much as it pained me to admit, I craned my neck to see the area Mona was pointing at. Thankfully the woman snatched a bottle from the shelf, so I’d at least be able to take a mental note of the brand when I rang up her purchase.

  Maybe after I closed up the shop for the night, I’d pick out a few things to try myself. At least I had a starting point and it’d be a lot easier to shop without anyone else watching. Not that it stopped my cheeks from heating up at the thought.

  The bell over the door jangled once more and Mona let out a frustrated growl.

  “Yo! Go help him. I’ll ring her up and I’m getting out of here.”

  “But I-I can’t—”

  My spluttered protests didn’t faze Mona in the slightest. She strut around the counter and placed her palms on my back, pushing me forward as she quietly said, “I know, I know. But you got to get used to it at some point and I happen to know this dude. Just be friendly and try to relax. He’s a chill guy.”