Sexpresso

By Gemma Stone

Attractive coffee shop manager, Catherine Cox, has been challenged to double the sales at her London-based shop, The Coffee Station. If the business is going to survive, it needs to start making more money. The solution, she knows, is to somehow make The Coffee Station stand out against the big chain competitors.

Little does she know, her staff have been discussion strategy for a long time, and the answer doesn’t just lie with steamy espressos. Can this serious businesswoman put aside her assumptions about the market and embrace a darker side to her café’s hot roast?

What will it take to please staff and customers, and the demands of a silent partner who has more than coffee on his mind?

Sexpresso is a 18,000-word novella and was originally published as part of the Hot Roast Romance And Coffee Confessions anthology.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Deep Desires Press
• Release date: Aug 28, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463349106

Gemma Stone

Gemma Stone started working in London’s corporate business world as a marketing copywriter in the travel industry in the ‘noughties’. The many exotic and erotic situations she encountered, coupled with her own creative imagination, have formed the basis of her sizzling short stories and naughty novellas. Mixing sex and romance into the high octane world of business, she has developed her own unique style of corporate smut. A confirmed fashionista, when she’s not checking out the latest catwalk styles, she can be found walking her dogs Bella and Benji on the beach at the vibrant and sexy south coast city of Brighton, England, where she now lives.

Book preview

Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

About Gemma Stone

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Sexpresso

Gemma Stone

Copyright © 2018 by Gemma Stone

Cover design copyright © 2018 by Story Perfect Dreamscape

All characters are age 18 and over.

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

Visit http://www.deepdesirespress.com for more scorching hot erotica and erotic romance.

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Chapter One

Your figures don’t look too good.

The two women seated in front of the man looked at each other in surprise at what they’d just heard.

The older of the two flicked her short, auburn hair back from her face and slid her black-framed designer glasses forward on her nose as she shot the man a withering look.

Well, I’m not sure that’s how I’d put it, she said as she pushed her chest forward as if to emphasize the point.

Catherine Cox was not a person to be messed with and neither she, nor her head barista, Abi Grant, had received a complaint of that nature before. Their coffee hadn’t been bad either.

If you mean our sales turnover isn’t up to the expected level, then what are you looking for? she quizzed, raising an eyebrow.

Look, Cath, replied the tall, black man pulling himself forward in his seat. We’ve each put a substantial financial investment into this coffee venture. The shop is in a great location in London, but we’ve got some stiff competition from the chains.

And…?

And, frankly, you and your team need to wake up and smell the coffee. I would be looking to see takings at double their present level.

Double? Christ almighty! We’re already working our butts off… exploded Abi at the suggestion. Abi’s pretty, pale face reddened in anger and took on an expression of thunder.

Calm down, Abi, said David Johnson, the financier and sleeping partner in The Coffee Station business. I’m not expecting you to kill yourselves overworking.

What, then? interrupted Catherine, curious at how this miracle could be achieved.

I need you to research the market further; check out latest trends; find out what your customers really want. Then give it to them — profitably.

It still sounds like more work to me, chipped in Abi.

Then take on one new staff member. A trainee barista who is keen and hungry to learn and won’t be too expensive on the wages bill.

Well, that sounds better, breathed Catherine.

You know, Cath, it shouldn’t be the job of the sleeping partner to interfere with management decisions. It’s just that I want you, well, us, to succeed, smiled David. His broad grin was infectious, and Catherine knew that he knew it.

She and David had gone to management college in London together and were similar ages. Catherine was thirty-five and David a year younger. They’d both had several other jobs since college, yet had kept in touch and had often talked of owning their own business. Their like-mindedness had meant that Catherine’s suggestion of him becoming a sleeping partner with her had been taken more literally than she had anticipated.

Well, it was fun while it lasted. Now it’s all about the figures, she thought, biting her lip.

I can get in touch with a friend who runs customer research focus groups. He’ll be able to do it as a favor, so it won’t cost anything. I’m sure it’ll help you start the ball rolling, said David.

If that’s what you think is necessary, sighed Catherine.

Yes, I do. Once we have some research findings, I suggest we then review things again in a month or two, and see how things are developing, added David as he wound up the meeting.

David stood up and kissed Catherine and Abi on the cheeks as they left his office.

Well, it sounds like change is on the horizon, and I’m sure David sees himself as a beacon, guiding us to safety. Honestly, though, I think we know enough about coffee, said Abi as she and Catherine headed down to the ground floor of the office in the glass elevator.

Let’s give it a try, Abi. After all, he is the main financier of the business. Without a partner we wouldn’t even have got his far.

I know, Cath, but just how far do you have to go with the whole ‘sleeping’ bit?

Come on, Abi. That was in the past. The only grinding I do now, coffee or otherwise, is with Dan. You know that.

Abi shot her a knowing smile as the women walked the short distance to the tube station. As they parted to head their separate ways home, Catherine hugged Abi. She was ten years younger than herself, a slim and very feminine girl, but the pair had become close friends in the short time they’d worked together.

Be good. See you in the morning, said Catherine as she turned to go.

You too. We’ll work this out.

On the tube train home Catherine reflected on recent events. It was true that business at The Coffee Station had been slow recently. Now she had to step up to the mark as manager of the business and deliver