More Than a Knight (Beech Grove Book 4) Read online

  More Than a Knight

  A Beech Grove Novella

  By Mayra Statham

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2018 by Mayra Statham

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Cover Image: Deposit Photos

  Cover Work: Tracie Douglas of Dark Water Covers

  Editing: Julia Goda of Diamond in the Rough Editing

  Fomatting: CP Smith

  Blurb

  Logan Knight has fallen hard for a woman he shouldn’t touch, his new assistant. Aubrey Rey is feisty, smart, and beautiful. Not a man who enjoys waiting, he sees the perfect opportunity to make his move.

  Aubrey can’t seem to take her eyes off her sexy new boss. She knows better. If anything, life has taught her men with power cannot be trusted.

  When lines are crossed, a passion is ignited neither of them can control. Will they have what it takes to make what they shared more than a Knight?

  Dedication

  If you’re not too long, I will wait here for you all my life.

  -Oscar Wilde

  Prologue

  Aubrey Rey

  The sky was dark now, the sun had just set behind the hills, taking with it all the oranges and pink hues in the sky. Making it match my mood.

  “Shit,” I heard her. I knew she would come. She would give up her night of snuggling up to her man to be here for me. I wanted to say thank you. I wanted to bawl my eyes out.

  But that wasn’t me. Instead, I chugged back the Tequila Sunrise I had made myself and looked up at her with as much of a charming smile as I could muster.

  “You sound funny when you curse.” I giggled, and I saw the smile my best friend in the whole wide world gave me. It was one I knew I would eventually get.

  Fuck, there was no pretending. It was a pity smile. The one you give your best friend in the whole wide world when their heart breaks and you have tried to warn them a million and a half times before.

  “Oh, Bee.” Worry was etched on her pretty face. Both of them.

  “Don’t ‘Bee’ me, you!” I slurred, my head swimming. “Haha. I said ‘Don’t Bee me,’ but it sounds like ‘Be you,’” I rambled, highly amused with myself. “Oh, Lee… There are two of you. You would have been an awesome twin.” I giggled again, trying, fruitlessly, to ignore the pain.

  “I’m pretty sure Kenzie would disagree with you.”

  “She prob-probably would.” I nodded my head, heavy. Her older sister was a cool chick; serious, but a cool chick. But older sisters wouldn’t appreciate their younger ones to become a double over night. Double? Mmm… an In-N-Out Double-Double.

  “What happened?” she asked gently, breaking the silence. I didn’t turn to look at her.

  I was sitting on the loveseat I had saved meticulously for. The delivery guys had looked at me like I was crazy when I had them set it out on the balcony of my apartment, but after everything was said and done, they had even mentioned how perfectly it fit. The small sitting area was cozy and colorful, but with the darkness now draping over us as the day turned into night, everything was dark, like my heart.

  “She came in,” I said and felt Lee shift on the seat next to me.

  “And she is?”

  “I heard her talking on her stupid bedazzled cell phone.”

  “Aubrey, you’re not making sense.”

  “Who even bedazzles anymore, you know? Other than twelve-year-olds.”

  “Bre—”

  “He’s going to propose.” God, it made me sick. I really thought things had changed. I thought he was finally seeing me. I’d obviously been wrong. But it’s what you get for falling for your manwhore boss. “He’s probably already betrothed.” I sounded pathetic.

  “Betrothed. Oh boy, we’re using the big words now,” she teased, and I couldn’t muster the energy to look for a witty comeback.

  “You don’t know, Lee.”

  “Babe, talk to me, so I can know.” Her arm wrapped around my shoulder, pulling my head on to hers, and I rested it there, looking out at the great sky. The air had a slight chill to it, and it made sense. Halloween was around the corner. Maybe I could get a witch costume and live it in it. Forever.

  “I’m glad I got the top floor,” I tried to change the subject. The tequila had been a great idea. It made me unable to focus on the topic on hand and particularly charming. Or at least I thought I was charming.

  “It sucks when the elevator’s broken,” she pointed out, and I knew she was right, but I didn’t feel like admitting it. Then again, I never liked admitting I was wrong.

  “Maybe, but look at the sky. It’s so big.” I sighed.

  “Talk to me, Bre.” Guess subject change wasn’t going to work.

  “He’s going to be someone else’s.” Damn. Saying it out loud hurt a lot more than just thinking it.

  “And by he we mean your—“

  “Don’t say it.” I dramatically popped my head up, which only made the balcony spin. Trying not to let the booze and balcony get the best of me, I tried hard to glare at both Lenas. “I’m a cliché!”

  “Honey, you are not making any sense.”

  “A big honking cliché! Working for the man, and the man doesn’t even see me!”

  “Oh, babe, you’re so lucky I left my cell inside. I would have loved filming this,” she teased, and I rolled my eyes, wincing at how dizzy that made me.

  “I’m not even a Dolly song,” I sourly said out loud, looking out toward the sky. Beech Grove was beautiful, a small hidden gem of Southern California. My home. Now I would probably have to leave. It would hurt too much to be here.

  “What?”

  “I could just stay.” It was home, and it’s not like being around me would even matter. Not to him.

  “You aren’t going anywhere,” she scolded. Of course, she would. She couldn’t fathom the idea of not having me, her bestie, around now that Father Time had knocked her up.

  “Oh crap. I’m so going to tell Knox you called him that.” I looked at her and started to laugh when I realized I’d said the words out loud. “You have Father Time and Baby Nugget. You’ll be okay without me around all the time. Maybe I could go to LA and just, I don’t know, blend in the crowd.”

  “Babe, you can’t go anywhere. This is home. Screw—”

  “What?” I looked and tilted my head, slightly confused, smiling sadly as I remembered where I was going with my tirade, “Oh no, I mean the song. She leaves because she would be in his way, but not me. Nope.” I shook my head, and this time when I sighed, all the emotions I had been holding in felt heavier. “I’d still be there, and he wouldn’t even know I was. Because other than picking up his stupid suits from the dry cleaners and reminding his stupid face about meetings, he doesn’t see me.”

  “Aubrey.”

  “Lee?” I turned to my best friend, to my sister from another mister. My soul sister, the one other person in the world who got me. “I think I gotta look for a new job.” I sighed.

  “Okay, Bre. We will get you started tomorrow.” She stroked my hair. That was nice. She was the best. I really didn’t deserve her.

  “Okay. New job will fix it, right?” I mumbled, my body melting deeper into the love seat, resting my head on my knees.

  “If he couldn’t see what was right in front of him compared to the blow-up doll, it’s so his loss.”

  “Thanks, Lee.”

  “It’s the truth,” she whispered, and I knew my usually sarcastic best friend wanted to cry. But that was normal. Well, her new normal. She was pregnant. Pregnant people cried. A lot, as I found out being around Lena and her baby daddy slash hubby, Knox.

  “No crying, Lee!” My lips tingled and felt looser than ever.

  “Anything you want.” Her face softened.

  “You’re going to be an awesome mom,” I shared, and her eyes widened. I wasn’t the feelings kind. I didn’t do emotions and ooey gooey. “Okay, that’s settled. Job hunt starts with a hangover and a trip to the Halloween store tomorrow.”

  “Halloween store?”

  “I need a costume.”

  “What?” She laughed, utterly amused with me.

  “I need something to aspire for.”

  “For Halloween?”

  “For next year. This one is going to suck.”

  “Ahh. Gotcha. How about a princess?” she suggested, and I snorted.

  “Can you imagine me as a princess? As if. Who the hell would be my knight in shining armor?”

  “You never know what life will throw at you.”

  “Hmm…” I silently disagreed.

  I knew what life would have in store for me and my drunk ass. Cats. Lots of them. But since I was allergic, I’d probably be known as the crazy dog lady or maybe the fish lady who drowned in her home when all her fish tanks broke because her finned pals planned a mutiny against her.

  “And Lee?”

  “Yeah?”

&n
bsp; “Don’t let me fall in love ever again.” I sighed, my eyes heavy with unshed tears, and I felt her pull me closer and tucked my body into her. “Never, ever again,” I muttered as I fell asleep and drifted off into a dreamless state.

  Chapter One

  Aubrey- Almost a year later

  “Miss Rey, can I see you in my office?” he called out, his voice like deep velvet against my skin, and I clenched my jaw.

  I didn’t want to go in there.

  Hell no.

  But I had no choice. It was my job.

  After spending almost ten grueling months looking for a new job, I had finally found one. Not that I had waited that long to put in my resignation. Hell no. The moment it was announced that Jethro Nell was engaged to his blow-up doll, I was out of there. Jethro. How the hell could I have thought I had fallen head over heels for a guy named Jethro? A man-boy who didn’t even know how to call in his own lunch orders or how to print a freaking document. Or didn’t know a hole on the ground from his ass.

  Hindsight was twenty-twenty, and you are only wiser through your experiences. At least that was what I told myself. Everything that had happened only reminded me of a valuable lesson my own father had taught me.

  Men with power and money were not for me.

  After my savings account had started to dwindle close to nothing and I was living off bananas and top ramen noodles, like I was some kind of college student—or worse, a hipster—I sucked up my pride and asked Lena’s husband, Knox Madison, for help in my employment search.

  What could I say? At that point, I was past desperate.

  Not that personal assistant to restaurateur, Logan Knight, was anything to shun your nose at. Heck no. Logan Knight was well respected. Powerful in his own right with a great reputation. He had an amazing head for business. Once an editor at a hoity toity magazine said Logan Knight had the Midas touch when it came to restaurants. I’d done my research when Knox had told me about the interview. Read article after article about Mr. Knight and his business savvy ways.

  What I hadn’t done was look at an image of him.

  It had never crossed my mind.

  A man with the kind of achievements he had accomplished had to be older in years.

  Unfortunately for me, he was my own Achilles heel.

  He was incredibly sexy.

  Bald, tall, and broad chested, with a sexy smirk and tiny dimple when he gave you a genuine smile. All while smelling like an expensive woodsy cologne. To top it off, he was impossibly kind. When I had walked into the office for my interview and had laid eyes on him, I had been ready to turn around. How could any warm-blooded woman resist a man like him? But the idea of noodles for the hundredth time for dinner stopped me dead in my tracks.

  Then he surprised me. He offered me the job on the spot after only asking me a few questions. Judging by the permeant scowl he had worn during my interview and the unreadable expression on his face, I would have bet big money he was going to tell me his people would call mine.

  Yet here I’ve been. Happily, for the most part, employed for a month.

  I got up from my desk and walked over to his office. The door slightly ajar, I couldn’t see him, yet I knew what was expecting me on the other side. I could picture him all sexy, sitting at his desk. Stop thinking about him like that! I scolded myself and gave myself a pep talk before knocking.

  “Come in, Miss Rey,” he clipped, and I walked in. “I’ve told you, you don’t need to knock.”

  “I just—”

  “I need you to get these sent out, over-nighted, please,” he cut me off, and I stood stock still.

  He was an amazing man to what felt like everyone. But me. I still had no idea why he’d hired me. Maybe he had felt obligated since his friend had asked him to interview me? Whatever it was, I was determined to be as efficient as possible.

  “Then I need you to double-check my travel plans for next week,” he added, quickly snapping me out of my thoughts.

  “I already emailed everything to you.” I smiled, and he frowned.

  “I need you to add yourself to it as well,” he muttered just as I was about to turn, and my head popped up to look at him.

  “I’m sorry, what?”

  “I need you to join me next week in Texas,” he said, and my eyes widened. He didn’t bother looking at me, his eyes laser focused on the monitor in front of him.

  “Next week, sir?” I questioned slowly.

  “Yes,” he gritted.

  “Next week is Halloween,” I pointed out stupidly. Why did I say that?

  “And?” From where I stood, I could see his jaw clench slightly, and I licked my lips.

  “I umm… see my friends, and I have this party.” His focus left his computer and moved to me, making me feel like I was suddenly under a microscope. There was something about his eyes that made heat pool in my belly… and lower. Something dark and lusty and highly inappropriate for me to think about. He’s your boss, I reminded myself.

  “If you know my travel plans, Miss Rey, you will know we have to leave the day after Halloween.”

  “Oh, that’s right,” I muttered, trying to tear my gaze from his scrutinous one but couldn’t.

  “So, the Madisons are having a costume party?” he asked, his demeanor softening slightly, and I smiled.

  “Yes, sir.” I breathed softly, and I could have sworn his usually lighter shade of brown eyes darkened. His gaze landed on my lips. I could almost feel them. But as quickly as his conduct had changed, it flipped right back, and it was as if he could no longer bear being around me. “It’s mostly Knox who wanted to do something. Lena wanted to stay home with the baby and pass out candy. But Knox wanted to do it up big for Ash’s first Halloween, and when Lena’s sister pitched in, it became a thing.” I winced when I noticed I was rambling and stopped talking.

  As I looked at Logan Knight, the way his scruffy, angular jaw clenched and unclenched, the office suddenly felt ten degrees warmer, and my cheeks felt flushed as we stared at one another, a weird, slightly intimate and familiar silence falling between us. Something sizzled between us. Or at least I thought it did.

  “Anything else?” he asked, apparently bored, and I wanted to hit myself upside the head. Damn it, Aubrey, get it together!

  “No. You only have a meeting at four and then the spaghetti dinner with the Fireman’s Association,” I quickly reminded him, wanting to get the hell out of there. I had made enough of an idiot of myself for a day.

  “Good.” He turned to give me his back, and I started to walk off when I could have sworn I heard him say, “Thank you, Aubrey.” My steps faltered, and I turned to look at him, but he hadn’t turned from his desk, his attention always on his monitor.

  It had to be my imagination. He had never called me anything other than Miss Rey since I had started, and I didn’t see that changing anytime soon.

  Logan Knight

  I was in hell.

  Heaven and hell, all at the same time, if I was being honest.

  I couldn’t help the way my eyes followed her on the reflection of the extra monitor I had put in on her second day working for me. I watched her reflection from my monitor, and not for the first time that day, I felt like a fucking stalker. Worse than a stalker. Like some creep who couldn’t seem to get enough of her.

  The sight of her alone made me feel like a caged animal. It had been a fucking month of feeling this way. Every day worse. The ache in my hands to touch her matched the ache in my groin to sink balls deep into her. I’d never been driven to the brink of insanity by a woman. Aubrey Rey was the first.

  Aubrey Rey.

  Jesus, even her name made me hard.

  Taking a deep breath didn’t help. Her soft perfume clung to the air in my office, and I rubbed my face. I couldn’t touch her. She was my damn assistant, for goodness sakes. If I tried anything with her, it would leave me wide open for a fucking sexual harassment suit my company, nor I, needed.

  Hiring her had been stupid.

  I had noticed the effect she had on me instantly, but being hardheaded, I had blamed it on my dry spell. Maybe I would have felt that towards any woman. But that had not been the case. It had been worse. Because, on her first day at work, while I walked her through the floor and we spoke, I recognized exactly who she was.