Summer with Sexy

By Treva Harte

Zoe Pappas doesn’t want her new boss, A. Gordon Haigh, as a housemate. She’s not even sure she likes him, much less wants to live with him. But when she discovers the poor little rich boy is broke and his family has decided to punish him for the summer, she has to stick up for the underdog.

She still can’t quite figure out how that leads to her foster dog, Sexy, adopting Gordon, her very Greek family falling in love with him, and her realizing he’s very hot in a corset. But summer is the right time for new adventures -- and also for accepting they end in the fall. This guy is only hers for the summer… unless somehow he changes her mind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Changeling Press
• Release date: Jan 7, 2022

Book preview

Prologue

I’m very disappointed in you, Gordon. His uncle looked at him over the rims of his glasses. Uncle Charles only wore his glasses when he needed to look especially severe. Gordon wanted to tell him he didn’t need any help, but figured this wasn’t the right time. Not that there would ever be a right time or that Gordon would ever speak up even if it was. Disappointed on every level imaginable.

Yes, sir. Gordon was disappointed in himself too. But he knew that didn’t count.

You were this close to graduating on time, and then you fail a class. There is no excuse for that.

Yes, sir. Technically he hadn’t failed. He had missed taking a required class. He’d been a freshman and thought he’d taken the right thing but hadn’t. It wouldn’t help to point that out right now anyhow. Plus, he’d probably start stammering or something and completely disgust as well as disappoint his uncle. No one in the family enjoyed listening to him try to talk and fuck it up.

I had plans for you after graduation, but even for a relative I can’t make exceptions to company policy. You will not be a manager for me this fall without a degree in hand.

Gordon swallowed. It wasn’t like he wanted to get a job with the family company. He’d looked in other places. And he could’ve gotten an offer that would’ve let him tell Uncle Charles to kiss off. More than one offer even. If he hadn’t fucking forgotten to take a humanities class. Or something that would have clearly fulfilled the cultural requirement.

I will not be paying for that additional class you must redo this summer, Gordon.

Hell. This day got better and better. It wasn’t like he had his trust fund yet or an unlimited allowance. The Allbrits weren’t big on giving money away to anyone, even family. Especially family, actually.

Um. I don’t think I qualify for financial aid, sir.

Or a scholarship based on merit. His uncle snorted. You can work for your money.

Doing what exactly? What did a not quite graduated senior do? His internships had all been for managerial work. They’d been the kind of internships that prepared you for jobs where you had a college degree and a promising title to go with your own office.

Right. Was he even qualified to flip burgers? And would that pay for his one remaining class? His college wasn’t exactly cheap. Nothing but the best and most expensive for his family.

I do have a managerial job of sorts for you.

Gordon knew from the smug note in that voice that all was not forgiven and forgotten. Here came the kicker.

One of our stores needs an assistant manager. It’s part-time work, so you should have ample time to study. And it pays a bit above minimum wage, or so I’ve been told.

Like his uncle had ever worked for minimum wage in his life. Probably the only people he knew who worked for minimum wage were his yard staff.

There’s only one of the family stores anywhere near my college, Gordon said. Where the store was had been pointed out to him. In fact, that was something the family always did whenever they went by one of their businesses -- the location of everything they owned was important. It’s --

No. It couldn’t be the one that was closest to him. Oh hell. Yes, it could. His uncle’s smile confirmed it. His uncle would never have smiled right now unless he had planned to do exactly what Gordon now realized would happen.

He was going to be working as part-time assistant manager at Allbrit Corsets and Lingerie.

Chapter One

We have a new assistant manager, Tracey told me.

At one point, the last actual manager who worked here had hinted I was in line to be assistant manager. Right. Like I’d believed that. I yawned to show the depth of how much I cared about the news.

How many does that make this year? I asked. Five? They can’t even hang on to assistant managers, much less hire a real manager. I bet this one lasts a week.

The crazy thing was, it was easy work. I could do the job with my eyes shut. Of course you got paid less, after bonuses, for managing than you did for sales. At least you did if you were good at selling. I was damn good.

This is even crazier than usual. Tracey leaned forward. Get this! It’s a guy.

What guy would work here? I asked. Wait. A cross-dresser?

I have no clue. But that is just weird. I wonder what the customers will think.

Maybe they’ll ask him to do their fittings. I tried not to smile. Why not a cross-dressing guy as a manager? It was a free country, and some parts were even progressive. Not here, particularly, but there was a first time for everything. When is he going to show up? Want to bet he doesn’t?

Tracey hissed and froze. I took a deep breath. I hadn’t heard the front door chime for anyone opening it, but that could mean…

How do you do?

The guy’s voice sounded a little peculiar -- but then mine might if I’d just heard an employee saying I wasn’t going to show up when I was right freaking behind her. Or maybe he’d heard about the cross-dressing. Shit. When would I learn to stop snarking? He had to be the assistant manager. He’d used the back door. The one that required a key to enter so it didn’t have to chime.

I needed this job. There were other ones in town, but none of them had such convenient hours and required so little of me. I hadn’t even had the chance to show how good I was at the job before I sabotaged myself in front of the new assistant…

I turned with my widest smile -- it hurt, I was smiling so big and fake -- and held out my hand.

Pleased to meet you, sir. I used my sweetest Southern-girl voice. I’m Zoe. Zoe Pappas.

If only I’d had a sweet Southern name and face to match the voice. Then again, I was special. Not everyone could have the looks to match their heritage the way I did.

He took my hand to shake it, his face very serious. I kept looking up. Damn, he was tall. And skinny. While I was cataloging his looks, he was a ginger but not really the pretty kind. More the pasty-skinned, big-nosed British inbred kind. He’d make a lousy cross-dresser with that Adam’s apple.

And I was nervous. I had just blown my first meeting with my new boss, and I wanted him to be the problem. That wasn’t being fair, but it was one of my many flaws. When feeling defensive, be offensive. As offensive as possible. "Think nice thoughts, Zoe." That’s what my counselor had told me in high school when I got into trouble.

Hmm. My boss had a nice, strong handshake. My dad had always said that was important in a man.

Gordon Haigh. The new assistant manager. His voice was beautiful. I planned to minor in acting, and I had a thing for voices. His was deep and resonant and… he fell silent again.

Tracey didn’t introduce herself. She was probably trying to look like part of the wall. I wasn’t sure what else to say without making things worse, and for once, I wasn’t going to try to do that.

As long as there aren’t any customers around, we should start today by doing some retraining, he said.

Yeah?

He walked over to our sign-in sheet -- why did anyone have anything that old-school in a store nowadays? -- and wrote his name and time in. I edged over to the sheet and looked down. Nice handwriting. A. Gordon Haigh was written in a lovely script.

I jerked my gaze back to his face when he spoke again.

We can start with work on how we introduce ourselves in the store and making that good first impression.

We all did that the first week of our training. He must know that. Of course he knew.

So. Ouch. I was being spanked for talking about him when he walked into the store. He should have just told me something up front.

I was also pretty sure that he looked a little longer toward me than Tracey after he spoke -- but not directly at me. At the girls. Just awesome. I knew in my corset -- hell, even without a corset -- they were hard to miss. Having big boobs wasn’t all bad. Women looked at me and wanted to buy what I was wearing, which helped with my sales. I usually made allowances for guys who came into the store to shop for their women when they said the same