Storm Warning!!

"Looks like you've really stocked up your liquor cabinet," I remarked as I noticed he had just about every kind of liquor I'd ever worked with, back when I used to tend bar to help get me through college.

As Owen reached into a cupboard behind me for some plates, he shrugged. "Everyone seemed to enjoy you mixing them up something special last year, so I thought I'd better make sure you had whatever you needed."

Ready to cook the chicken, I turned on the grill feature on his stove top, and suggested, "Well, I could still mix something up for us after lunch, if you'd like."

"Sure." He nodded. "Why don't you surprise me."

I thought of what Kendra had suggested, and if I was as devious as she was, I'd surprise him alright. All I'd have to do was mix him up something tall and potent, and I'd have him at my mercy.

I wrinkled my nose, because that wasn't me. I could never do anything that underhanded. Although... I couldn't see any harm in us having a little fun with our drinks.

We sat together at the long table by the window, overlooking the lake. After he thanked me for making lunch, he went quiet -- which was odd, because we always found something to talk about, especially since we shared the same sense of humor. But as I looked at him quietly eating, sitting about as far away as he could possibly get at the far end of the long oak table, I thought he seemed almost sullen. I wondered if he was still annoyed about the weekend being spoiled, or if it might be something else.

"Everything okay?" I asked him, as I reached for my wine glass.

He looked up at me, nodded his head and blandly muttered, "Yeah, everything's great."

No matter what he said, I knew him well enough that I could tell that something was bothering him. "It's too bad about the storm," I said, nodding at the window, and the way the rain was coming down, pelting so hard against the glass we now could barely see the other islands across the lake.

All he did was look out the window and shrug. Then he reached for his water glass, finally lifted his gaze and looked me in the eye. "Don't worry, Aubrey. As soon as this starts to clear off, I'll try and get you home, so you won't be stuck here with me."

I could feel my stomach drop as I realized that he must have overheard me on the phone, and obviously he was hurt.

I tried to think back to what I'd said, and wished I could slide under the table and disappear after I'd remembered telling Kendra that I didn't think much of him, when nothing could be further from the truth. Now I didn't know how to tell him that I didn't mean a word of it, though I was pretty sure he wouldn't believe me, or even want to hear it, with how disappointed he looked.

With lunch over, though I'd barely eaten after I'd realized what had happened, Owen got up and silently cleared the table. I followed behind and asked him if he wanted a coffee or anything.

He just shook his head and said, "No."

Okay, looked like it was going to be one word answers for the rest of the weekend. Terrific.

After he'd loaded the dishwasher, he walked into the great room and took a seat on one of the long, deep brown leather couches facing the rustic, wall-to-wall stone fireplace, and stared straight ahead.

Not even sure if I should, I went and sat down at the far end of the couch, and waited to see if he'd say anything. The silence was deafening as he kept me waiting for what felt like ages, while he kept his gaze trained on the empty fireplace, with me sitting staring at the side of his head.

Finally, I couldn't take it anymore and decided just to spit it out, "Okay, here's what happened. Someone from the office called and was teasing me about the two of us being stranded up here alone. And rather than have her start a rumor about what we might be getting up to, I just told her..."

"I heard," he said, cutting me off before I could repeat the awful things I'd said about him.

I shifted a little closer, stroked my hand over his and gave it a squeeze. "You know I didn't mean what I said. You must know by now that I like you as more than just a boss. And I really do enjoy working with you, and like to think of us as friends. But the way she kept goading me, and teasing me about what we might be doing together, I thought I'd better tell her that the only relationship we have is a working one, so she could forget about spreading any gossip."

He began to nod his head. "Yeah, I kind of wondered if someone was poking around." Finally, he managed a little smile as thankfully, he seemed to have accepted what I said. Then he surprised me when he completely changed the subject and asked, "Have you ever played crokinole?"

Slightly confused, I shook my head. "No, I don't think so. Is it a card game? I used to play a lot of cards with my family as a kid, especially when we'd visit my grandparents."

"No, it's not a card game. But it's kind of fun and easy to play. So, you want to give it a try?"

"Sure, I'm game." To be honest, I was just glad he was acting more like himself and talking to me again.

The smoothed-surfaced, octagonal-shaped wooden board was already sitting on a game table on the other side of the great room, next to the wall of windows. I realized, that as we played, we'd have a bird's eye view of what was going on outside. We'd be able to see the boat bobbing in the waves and the trees being battered by the wind as the storm raged on -- thankfully, while we were safe inside.

Owen pulled out a chair for me, and he began to explain how it worked as he took a seat across the table. He handed me twelve light colored wooden disks, and took twelve of the dark ones for himself. And he told me all we had to do was try and flick our little disks with our fingers into the middle to score twenty points, if we could manage to sink it in the hole. But if anyone's disk was already on the board, we had to at least touch it, or try to knock it off, or our disk would go out of play.

I noticed there were scores marked on the board, showing 5, 10, 15 and 20 points, going higher, the closer you got to the middle. Before we started, we had a trial run first, to see if I understood how to play. After we'd both used up our disks, he showed me that they cancelled each other out, till only the player with disks still left on the board got to score any points.

Turned out he was right, it was pretty easy, though there was a trick to shooting it just right. We laughed as we played, with him teasing me about shooting better with my tongue sticking out of the corner of my mouth. It was fun though, even when I flung a few too hard and sent them sailing off the board, right past his head. The way he narrowed his eyes on me, pretending to be angry when he had to dodge them, while obviously trying not to laugh, only made me laugh harder.

Though I quickly realized that Owen was some kind of a crokinole shark, if there was such a thing, because every chance he got he managed to sink a disk into the middle hole, for a quick twenty points. Even if he had to bounce his disk off one of mine first, while avoiding the annoying little pegs that circled the center of the board.

We played three games to 500 points. Then heaving a sigh, he looked outside at the rain still teeming down and suggested, "How about a game of backgammon?"

I smiled to myself as he reached on a low shelf beside the table for the backgammon set, because far from tearing up the sheets together, I realized that his idea of fun was pretty tame.

After we'd played a few games, and I won one to his two, when I noticed him looking down at the other games on the shelf, I cleared my throat to get his attention. When he looked up, cocking an eyebrow, I warned him, "You know if you reach for the Monopoly game, I might actually throw myself off the end of the dock."

Smiling across the table at me, his eyes lit up as he laughed. "So, I take it you've had enough?"

"Yeah, that was fun. But maybe we could watch a movie now, or even just kick back and relax for a bit."

"Sounds good to me."

When I got back in the open kitchen area, I considered making us up a plate of sweets, and maybe a carafe of coffee, since he'd brought loads of amazing looking desserts for everyone, too. But then smirking to myself, as I eyed the array of bottles in the bar, I reconsidered.

Without asking, I got down some glasses and set them on the bar top and started to mix us up a couple of cocktails. Owen's I made with Crown Royal, that I knew he liked, along with some Amaretto and pineapple juice. And for mine, I used a measure of Amarula cream, a little grenadine and another measure of Sambuca.

When I walked over to him and handed him his drink, he looked up at me, confused. "What's this?"

Trying to keep a straight face, I shrugged. "Why don't you try it and see."

He took a sip and nodded, as I had a sip of mine. "It's pretty good. What's it called?"

Playfully waggling my eyebrows, I grinned. "Yours is a Three Legged Monkey."

He threw back his head and laughed as he looked more carefully at his drink. "Really?" Then he nodded at mine. "And what's yours called?"

Flashing him another sly little grin, I told him, "Mine's a Slippery Nipple." I held out my glass and swirled it around, and murmured suggestively, "You want a taste?"

His gaze instantly shot to my breasts, and I could feel my nipples pebbling and growing diamond hard, just from the feel of his eyes on them. And I knew he could probably see the effect he was having on me, considering my dress was pretty thin.

He tried my drink, keeping his eyes steady on mine, as I watched him swallow. Still eyeing me closely, he asked in a ragged voice, "And how about you? You want a taste of my Three Legged Monkey?"

Leaning in, sounding a little breathy, I whispered, "Sure... I'd love to."

Owen held his glass to my lips, and keeping my eyes on his, ever so slowly I licked around the rim, knowing damn well I was teasing him, before I finally took a sip. "Mmm, that is good." I slid my tongue around my lips, making sure I got every drop, while trying not to smile at the way his eyes were flaring.

With his gaze focused hard on my mouth, his voice must have dropped an octave as he gruffly murmured, "And now I'm wondering what they'd taste like together."

"Guess there's only one way to find out," I whispered, as I put my glass down on the coffee table and slid my arm around his neck.

"You sure?" he asked me, even as he slipped his arm around my waist and started drawing me against him.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure." This felt like something I'd been dying to do forever, to finally know what it would feel like to share a real live kiss with my boss.

And if not now, I didn't know when we'd get another chance.

As he lifted me onto his lap, the anticipation was killing me, and I just couldn't hold back. Sliding my hands into his hair, I pressed my lips to his. Obviously every bit as eager, Owen let out a sound half-way between a groan and a growl as he clutched me tight against him, sliding his tongue across my lips, till I opened up and touched my tongue to his, and began stroking and gently sucking on the very tip.

His chest heaving, after we'd enjoyed a hot little session of tongue tangling fun, he pulled back. And I swear I'd never seen his eyes looking so dark and stormy, and could feel he was already rock hard pressed up between my legs. "You know I actually am old enough to be your father," he reminded me, I guess trying to give me an out, in case I wanted to change my mind.

Smiling into his eyes, as I kept playing with the hair at the back of his neck, I whispered against his lips, "It sure doesn't seem like it." I wiggled a little in his lap, to show him what I meant, because holy smokes, was he ever hard.

While I was happily getting off on the erotic sensation of sliding my pussy over his erection, Owen groaned deep in his chest, turning his gaze skyward as though looking for strength. I laughed at how flustered he looked as I wrapped my arms around his neck a little tighter, and went back to mating with his mouth.

As we got deep into a sizzling hot kiss, he began thrusting up against me, and started to lift my dress over my head. I was so blown away by the taste and feel of him that it barely registered that he'd also unsnapped my bikini top and tossed it aside.

The warmth of his hands cupping my bare breasts, as he filled his hands with the twins, and began gently massaging my heated flesh, had me moaning out loud. Licking into his mouth, shamelessly I began grinding my body down even harder against every long hard inch of him.

My nipples tingling, my pussy flooding, I could hardly wait for it to happen, sure I'd never felt so overwhelmed. I knew I'd never experienced anything this hot, though we weren't even naked -- yet.

His voice sounding a little ragged, he whispered breathlessly against my mouth, "Aubrey... I don't have a condom."

I flashed him a naughty grin. "We're good. I'm clean and protected; no worries."

He blew out a breath, looking relieved as he sat back and got his first look at my girls.

Without even thinking, the minute I saw where his eyes were, force of habit had me trying to hide them with my hands. He lifted his gaze to meet my eyes and said with a grin, "Now you're shy?"

I bit into my lip, not sure what to tell him. "Um, the thing is, I've always felt kind of top heavy, since I've been this size since I was thirteen. And being skinny as a rake as a kid, with breasts the size of these, they really stood out. So I got in the habit of covering up to try and hide them, so I wouldn't get made fun of at school. And I still feel pretty self-conscience about being so big, considering I've got these 36D's and only a 22 inch waist and 34 inch hips."

He looked up at me, puzzled. "Is that why you always dress in layers?"

When I nodded, he started to chuckle, and I couldn't believe he was laughing at me. Narrowing my eyes on him, I asked, "What's so funny?"

"And I always thought you were cold, and kept turning up the heat."

I laughed then, too. "And I wondered why it felt like you were always trying to fry my buns off."

Owen gave my butt a squeeze, rubbed his nose against mine, and murmured, "No way, not when it's this cute. And if my opinion matters, I think you're perfectly proportioned, and you've got to have the most beautiful breasts I've ever seen."

I could feel the color rising in my cheeks, flushing all the way down to my breasts, hardly able to believe what he was saying, and that he didn't think they were freakishly big, like I did. I took a look down then, finally removed my hands and lifted my gaze to his. "You're sure they're not too big?" I'd always thought they looked like melons, which was why I'd always felt awkward about anyone seeing me out of my clothes.

Keeping his eyes on mine, shaking his head, he dropped a tender little kiss to the tip of each one. "They're absolutely perfect. And I don't think you should be trying to hide them."

Seeing as I'd always respected his opinion, I decided maybe it was time to stop obsessing over my girls -- at least around Owen.

Giving my butt another little squeeze, his gaze steady on mine, he suddenly sounded serious, "But there's no getting around the fact that I am almost twice your age. So are you sure about this, Aubrey? I know there are probably tons of young guys out there who'd kill to be in my shoes right now, that would be much better suited for someone your age. So I want you to be sure before we do anything else that this is really what you want."

Though I thought it was sweet that he was making sure I was okay with what we were about to do, when I thought back to the last guy I dated, who was closer to my age, I had to roll my eyes and try not to laugh. "Actually, I have dated guys my age, and it's never worked out."

When he eyed me curiously and waited, I thought I'd tell him about my last fun-filled dating experience to prove my point.

"To be honest, it's been quite a while since I've been on a date, probably because the last one was almost enough to make me want to switch teams."

Chuckling, he gave me another little squeeze and asked, "What happened?"

"Well, my cousin Sarah's boyfriend Joe works as an office techie. He mentioned to Sarah that the other tech that worked alongside him was single, and for some reason he thought that we might hit it off."

As I thought back, the whole thing was just so crazy; I wondered if he'd even believe me.

Finally, I shrugged and decided I might as well tell him the whole story.

"The guy called himself Gonzo. I never knew his real name. When he texted me and suggested we meet up at his favorite pizza place, I didn't mind, because neutral territory is always a good idea on a first date.

"The place was pretty basic, just a couple of tables and chairs and a counter for take-out and deliveries.

"And good old Gonzo outdid himself, all dressed in black, except for the white skull and crossbones emblazoned across his T-shirt."

Owen raised an eyebrow. "He dressed like that for a first date?"

I chuckled as I thought back at how surprised I was. "Yeah. I was in a little black dress and heels, expecting a night out, so I felt pretty awkward and way overdressed. Anyway, he ordered us this really heavy, meat-lovers double cheese pizza and two Cokes, without asking what I'd like. Then with no explanation, he got on his phone and started texting like crazy, and I just sat there and watched his fingers fly over the keys. I noticed he looked pretty agitated as he kept texting. And as soon as the pizza came, he choked back four slices in a row, like he barely had time to eat.

"I just had one slice, which was more than enough for me. Finally, he lifted his eyes from his phone, looked up at me and told me he lived just around the corner, and that he forgot something, so he had to go home.

"Before I knew what he was doing, he threw some money on the table, and nodded at the door, so I got up and we walked back to his place. No big surprise, he lived in his parents' basement. Though he had to be in his early thirties, he seemed pretty settled in, like he had no plans to move on.

"Once we got inside, I couldn't believe my eyes, or the gawdawful stench that met us as we wandered downstairs to his room. The place was an absolute dive, and I felt like I was walking into a nightmare. Empty pizza boxes stacked to the ceiling all around the room, beer and soda cans scattered over nearly every inch of the rug, dirty socks and underwear hanging from every surface. I'd never seen anything like it.

"Anyway, Gonzo quickly grabbed a seat in front of his TV, and with a nod of his head, he mumbled something about me taking a seat on the couch. I actually had to toe-away pair of dirty underwear from my feet, so I could sit down -- unfortunately right onto one of his dirty T-shirts that were spread across the couch, giving me a nice whiff of stale B.O.

"Then he turned on his big screen TV, put on some headphones and got into this video game with some friends online. In addition to holding my breath, I had to plug my ears; the game was so loud and really violent, as I watched him blasting away at everything on the screen. For a few minutes I just sat there stunned, wondering why the hell he'd even asked me out, if he had a game night planned. Unless of course, all he ever did was play games, which seemed like a pretty strong possibility with a guy like him.

"Finally, he turned his head, looked at me and said, 'Oh, sorry, I should have asked. Did you wanna bang?'"

"I was so shocked, I'm pretty sure my jaw must have hit the floor. I thought he had to be kidding. 'Did I want to bang?' Was he crazy? But I could tell he was serious, because he didn't even blink, as he waited for me to answer.