Amber's Fantasy

by

Pepper Anthony

Amber’s Fantasy

Copyright © 2013, Pepper Anthony

ISBN: 9781937325961

Publisher: Beachwalk Press, Inc.

Electronic Publication: November,
2013

Editor: Pamela Tyner

Cover: Fantasia Frog Designs

eBooks are not transferable. No part
of this book may be used or reproduced without written permission, except in
the case of brief quotations in articles and reviews.

This book is a work of fiction and
any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is
purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination
and used fictitiously.

If you had the chance to act out your secret fantasy, would
you dare?

Ray Ferris is the first person to discover Amber Jackson’s
naughty secret desires. While helping her move some boxes, he stumbles on her
stash of erotic romances featuring ménages. Despite a strict company policy
prohibiting co-workers from dating, Amber finds herself inexorably drawn to
Ray. She’s never been attracted to a white man before, but his intriguing
invitation to actually have sex with two men at one time captivates her
imagination. When the barriers to their relationship are swept away, will Amber
have the courage to finally act out her forbidden fantasy? And if she does,
will the experience open doors to a whole new world, or cost her a chance at
true love?

Content Warning: contains scenes of explicit sexual activity

For Dr. Scott Rushing and the wonderful staff at Compass
Oncology.

Amber Jackson adjusted her gray linen pencil skirt and
patted the neat twist of her hair, then pushed open the main door to the new
office space. According to the receptionist, Ray Ferris would be working
somewhere in this labyrinth of empty halls and unfinished cubicles on the
seventeenth floor.

Passing through what would eventually be the reception area,
she walked by a couple of workers hanging sheetrock and then down a long
corridor, the
click-clack
of her pumps like little hammers on the
uncarpeted concrete. Her heart hammered too; if she couldn’t get her PC to boot
up immediately and get those reports printed, Saundra would not be happy. And
making her boss happy was Amber’s number one goal, especially with her annual review
just a month away.

She peeked into each doorway along the corridor, finally
finding the object of her search in a small office four rooms down.

She almost didn’t recognize him in casual clothes. As head
of the IT department, the man normally wore slacks and a white dress shirt and
tie. He pretty much blended in to the sea of other well dressed professionals
populating the offices of Crescent Design. But word was he’d insisted on
running the network cable in the new office space himself and had dressed way
down for the job. Still, she wasn’t prepared to see him down on his hands and
knees with his back to her, adding some kind of connector to the end of a
length of thick, gray cabling. Thinner wires running from his shirt pocket to a
pair of earbuds explained why he hadn’t heard her approach.

It was as if she’d never really seen him before. She stood
for a moment in the doorway, noticing for the first time how broad his
shoulders were, straining against the snug black t-shirt he wore. Her eyes
wandered lower. How could they not? A red-blooded woman would have to be blind
not to admire the fit of those tight jeans on that perfect butt. A sigh escaped
her lips.

Suddenly the tall, quiet man who kept the computers running
at Crescent Design became distinctly masculine. The fluttering response in her
tummy surprised her; she couldn’t remember ever feeling this way about a white
man before.

But tummy flutters aside, it was his professional help that
she needed right now. She hoped he wouldn’t mind leaving his work for a few
minutes to come downstairs and troubleshoot her PC.

She took a couple of steps forward, placing her feet and
legs in his peripheral vision. Immediately, he sat back on his heels and turned
around. His face lit up, and she thought—not for the first time—that he
resembled Johnny Depp’s river pirate in one of her all-time favorite movies,
Chocolat
.

“Hey, Amber.” A slow, warm smile bloomed on his face as he
removed the earbuds.

“Hey, Ray.” The piercing gaze of his dark brown eyes made
Amber acutely aware of her own femininity. Her belly did a complete
tuck-and-roll as he came to his feet and moved toward her, his well-built body
as lithe as a tiger’s.

Face it, girl, he’s pretty damn hot for a white guy.

The realization jolted her, but intriguing as it might be,
there was no point at all in noticing how hot he was. Employee dating was
strictly forbidden at Crescent. He would never be hot enough to risk her hopes
for a promotion.

“What can I do for you?” He crossed the small room, ending
up just inches away.

Mmm, Polo cologne.
Amber swayed, struggling to gather
her thoughts into a coherent order. “Um—my computer won’t turn on and I really
need to get some reports printed out for this afternoon’s staff meeting. Can
you come and check it out for me?”

His dark eyes roved over her face with friendly interest.
Amber’s pulse spiked. They’d never been alone in quarters this close before. In
fact, other than the first day she’d come to work there—when he’d set up her
desktop computer to connect to the corporate network—their conversations had
been limited to passing hellos in the hallway or business-related exchanges at
staff meetings. Unlike many of the men at the firm, he’d never made a move that
she would classify as forward. But now, his eyes seemed to be lingering on her
face in a very familiar way.

“Sure, Amber. Lead the way.”

She brushed by him and headed out the door. Once in the
hallway he came abreast of her. His shoulder grazed hers as they walked, and
she felt a blush of warmth at the touch. He was a good six inches taller than
she was, even in her heels, and she was more aware than ever of his broad chest
and powerful arms. Who knew the man had such appealing, tanned muscles?

“What do you think of the new space?” he asked.

“It’s going to be wonderful. I’m starting to feel a little
claustrophobic in my old, small office, especially now that it’s full of moving
boxes. From my new office, I’ll have a great view of the skyline and twice the
space.”

Suddenly the hostile face of her older brother, Charles,
popped into her head. She remembered his snarled predictions when she’d told
him she’d be leaving Colorado to work in the prestigious design firm. He was
sure she’d hate the west coast, that she’d be taken advantage of in Portland,
just as he perceived himself discriminated against in his hometown. Of course
that had proved to be the farthest thing from the case, and she could hardly
wait to rub Charles’s nose in that fact the next time she went home for a
visit.

Mostly, she was hoping to convince her younger sister,
Dinitra, to move out here. The sooner she got that girl out of that seedy Aurora men’s club where she worked, the better! A promotion would go a long way to showing
both her siblings what determination and success could look like, and would help
her support Dinitra while she looked for a good job in Portland.

Amber let out a little sigh of satisfaction. She really
loved her job, even if it did seem that her drive to succeed sometimes created
a barrier between herself and her coworkers.

“The new IT department is much more spacious too,” Ray was
saying. “I’ll finally be able to add the two extra servers we’ve needed.”

“That’s great.”
And what the heck is a server?

“I’ll have to give you a guided tour some time.”

“Sounds like fun,” she murmured, wondering how she would
ever pull off pretending to be interested in a bunch of computer equipment.

At the elevator she kept her eyes on the dial that showed
the approach of the car.

“They always take longer when you’re in a hurry, right?” he
said, and she turned to find him still smiling at her. She’d never realized
before how straight and white his teeth were. Toothpaste-commercial white. They
made his tanned skin seem even darker. Her insides did another strange flip-flop
as their gazes held for the space of several seconds.

She’d never thought much about going out with a white man.
It wasn’t that she had anything against dating outside her race, but she’d just
never felt particularly attracted to a Caucasian. The Denver suburb she’d come
from was predominantly African American as was the college she’d attended. She
simply hadn’t taken the opportunity to date out.

Here in Oregon, the reverse was true. In fact, there were
only two brothers who worked at Crescent and they were both married. She was
surrounded every day by white men, several of whom had made it clear they were
interested. The company policy notwithstanding, she wasn’t sure she was quite
ready to venture into the new territory of mixed-race dating.

But Ray Ferris would certainly be a great place to start.

Startled at the thought, Amber covered her discomfiture by
reaching out and poking the elevator call button several more times.

He chuckled. “I don’t think that’s going to make it come any
faster.”

“Maybe not, but it makes me feel better.”

The elevator arrived then and he stepped back, motioning for
her to go ahead. Amber hurried in and backed up into one of the corners.

* * * *

As the elevator doors whispered closed, Ray let his eyes
slide over Amber’s smokin’ body. It sure was a crime to hide all those lush
curves beneath that plain gray suit. The jacket was so long it totally hid the
sexy, rounded contours of her hips, and the skirt came almost to her knee. Only
her perfect calves and ankles hinted that she had a great pair of legs that
went all the way up.

He only knew that because he’d spotted her a month ago in a
neighborhood grocery store on her day off. She’d been wearing a sweet little
pair of shorts, and the sight of her had knocked the air out of him. She was
with some beefy black guy and didn’t see him, so he didn’t say hello, just
watched her from across the produce aisle. Now, the stiff set of her shoulders
reminded him that he wasn’t supposed to know anything about her long, shapely
legs. And he definitely wasn’t supposed to remember the way her yellow tube top
had molded to her big soft breasts, showing off to perfection the warm, smooth
color of her arms and shoulders. Today, her suit jacket concealed those
considerable assets entirely. In the office, Amber Jackson was all business,
and always dressed to keep it that way.

All right, since that’s how the lady always played it, he’d
just pretend his jeans weren’t getting tight at the thought of backing her up
into that corner and kissing her until she melted into his arms. Then he’d pull
her close and introduce his hands to all those fine, womanly curves and—

Ding.
The elevator stopped on their floor and the
door opened. She gave him a tight little smile and went ahead of him down the
corridor. As he followed, his eyes straying to the feminine sway of her hips,
he thought about the comments he’d heard from the other guys at Crescent. So
far, no one had succeeded in cracking Amber’s cool exterior. She didn’t date
anyone from the office, regardless of race. She was known around the water
cooler as the Ice Princess. But Ray didn’t think she was frigid or gay, as the
other guys sometimes speculated. Or even that she was above dating white guys.
He just figured she was paying serious attention to the company’s dating
policy. He could respect that. If she wanted to get ahead in this corporation,
she was wise not to fall into bed with any of the guys there.

But he had to admit, he was just as curious about what
turned her on as the rest of them. He wouldn’t be a normal man if he didn’t
wonder what it would be like to be with her. He just didn’t feel comfortable gossiping
about her the way they all enjoyed doing.

They came to her office door and she went in, standing off
to one side of the desk. She motioned toward the errant PC.

“Well, doc, here’s your patient, ready for its exam.”

He sat in her chair and hit the power button on the computer
tower. Nothing. No indicator lights, no boot-up noises. It was almost as if the
thing wasn’t getting juice. He glanced down at the surge protector hidden by
the desk. Sure enough, the light was out.

“Here’s your problem. No power.” He got up and followed the
cable that ran from the surge protector. It disappeared behind a stack of file
boxes that crowded the wall in front of Amber’s desk. He pushed the boxes aside
and found the dangling plug and stuck it back into the wall. “Try it now.”

Amber pushed the power button and the computer responded
immediately, coming on with a soft whir and a series of little beeps.

“I feel so foolish,” she said, her cheeks turning an
appealing rose color. She sank into her chair. “I didn’t even think to check
whether it was plugged in. I guess I knocked the plug out when I was moving
boxes earlier.”

“In the new space everything will be hard wired,” he said,
“so this kind of thing won’t happen.” He toed the boxes to one side. “Why don’t
I just restack these for you so they’re not so much in your way?” Without
waiting for her response, Ray began shifting the piled boxes.

“You don’t have to do that.”

“It’s okay. It’ll just take me a minute. Give you some extra
room in here.”

Some of the cartons had lids and some didn’t, and their
sizes varied, so arranging them neatly was challenging. Toward the bottom of
one stack he found a smaller box with no lid. Inside it was a hodgepodge of
paperback books. Based on the cover of the top book, he assumed they were mostly
romance novels: A naked Nordic guy with huge muscles and flowing hair holding a
half-dressed, swooning woman. Ray grinned. So this was what the proper Ms.
Jackson did behind closed doors on her lunch hours.

“Quite a library you have here,” he teased, holding up the
book. He read the title out loud. “
Love’s Perfect Promise
. Ha! Too bad
love’s only perfect in paperback novels, right?”

He glanced toward her, expecting maybe an embarrassed little
smile of agreement. Instead, her face had gone scarlet, her eyes wide. She shot
up from her chair and made a grab for the box.

“I’ll take those.” Her voice sounded funny, and her big,
brown eyes were glued to the box in his hand.

Ray glanced back into the box. The next book’s cover showed
two bare-chested men sandwiching a sexy black woman in a bikini top.
Mandy’s
Mates
, the title read.

Whoa!
He checked out the book underneath.
Three to
Get Ready
. Another cover shot with two muscular males fondling a nearly
naked young woman. Under that was one entitled
Just Us Three
.

His gaze shot back to Amber’s face. Her eyes slid away.

“You know what? This is so not my business.” He set the box
back on the floor and dusted his hands. “I need to get back upstairs and finish
pulling that cable.”

“Right.” Her gaze was still on the floor. “Um, thanks again
for rescuing me.”

“Anytime.” He left her office and strode down the hall
without looking back.

Whoa! Who knew?
Ray couldn’t stop a grin from pulling
at his mouth as he stepped into the elevator and headed for the upper floors.
He could hardly believe what he’d just found out about the Ice Princess.
Apparently, beneath that modest gray suit beat the heart of a secret siren.