Strictly Business : A Lesbian Romance Read online

  Strictly Business

  A Lesbian Romance

  Alexa Woods

  © 2021 Alexa Woods

  All Rights Reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be

  reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express

  permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book

  review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or

  dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters

  are all productions of the author’s imagination.

  Please note that this work is intended only for adults over the age of 18 and

  all characters represented as 18 or over.

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Epilogue

  Also by Alexa Woods

  About Alexa Woods

  Book Description

  A terrible business idea. Two clashing personalities struggling to

  make it work. A blossoming attraction.

  Taylor Samson has one goal in life: to give her daughter a better future.

  That’s why she left the comforts of her hometown for the big city. That’s

  why she works like a zombie. And that’s why she gathers strength and

  pitches her big business idea to Christina, a gorgeous, calculating investor.

  Her dreams are trampled underfoot when the heartless business lady coldly

  rejects her proposal.

  Christina Hilford has one goal in life: to be successful in her career.

  Families and changing diapers are the last things on her mind. So when she

  meets Taylor, an obvious amateur in the business world, she can’t help but

  roll her eyes. It doesn’t matter that she’s stunning.

  Despite their immediate disdain for each other, Christina and Taylor

  soon find themselves thrown into the task of making Taylor’s disaster of a

  business plan work. Slowly, their preconceptions of each other start to give

  way. Taylor can’t seem to resist the moments when Christina lets down her

  guard. And Christina is starting to wonder if this little family can give her

  the home she’s never had.

  Can they shed their prejudices and admit their growing connection to

  one another? Or are their lives meant to intersect briefly before they must

  eventually part ways?

  This is a standalone steamy F/F enemies to lovers romance novel

  with a HEA.

  Chapter 1

  Taylor

  Bandera, Texas had everything that Taylor Samson could have wanted,

  except for the one thing that would truly have made her happy. A wife.

  Bandera was small. People talked. Those weren’t always kind words. It

  was hard to be different. It was even harder to get left at twenty to raise a

  child alone. Oh, and be gay. People didn’t like that. People wanted Taylor to

  be the girl who grew up there. The cute little blonde girl who wore her hair

  in braids under a too big cowboy hat. People wanted her to stay that sweet,

  green eyed girl in boots for the rest of her life. People didn’t want that girl

  to grow into a woman with dreams of her own. They didn’t want that

  woman to be honest.

  “Taylor? You okay?” Adrianna glanced worriedly over a bowl of

  steaming mashed potatoes to where Taylor was sitting. Even frowning,

  Adriana was still a beauty. Long black hair, tanned skin, stunning dark eyes,

  and a petite figure with lots of curves made most people do a double take

  and continue to stare after that.

  “Yeah. Sorry.” She shook her head. “Just thinking about home.”

  “Your parents’ farm sounds beautiful,” Adriana’s partner, Juliana

  drawled in her lovely Montana accent. She couldn’t look more different

  than Adriana. She was blonde, tall, and built more athletically.

  Adriana had an accent as well. She was from Brazil originally. She

  met Juliana when she was vacationing there six years ago. They were both

  transplants to Austin. They’d moved when Juliana got a job at the hospital

  as a nurse. Together, they had a beautiful boy, Joseph.

  Watching Juliana’s eyes light up and her cheeks flush as Adriana

  brushed her hand while passing over a bowl of peas made Taylor’s stomach

  hurt. She glanced over at her six-year-old daughter, Chloe, and smiled

  warmly. Chloe grinned back. She’d recently lost two bottom teeth, but,

  added to her big green eyes, the smattering of freckles across her nose, and

  her riot of dark hair, the gap was adorable. The wooden table was huge and

  oval shaped, and beside her sat Joseph. He was a beautiful boy with dark

  hair and soft brown eyes. He was the first friend Chloe made in her new

  school.

  “It is,” Taylor said, turning back to Juliana. She helped herself to the

  mashed potatoes before setting a big scoop on Chloe’s plate and on

  Joseph’s. “It was great. I loved the animals.” She set down the bowl and

  picked up the peas. Chloe shook her head madly and groaned when Taylor

  put a scoop of them on her plate too. “I just didn’t love the small-town

  mentality so much. Growing up I didn’t really get it, but after I—well—um

  —got older and figured out who I was, things were harder. I still love

  visiting my parents though. I miss the farm a lot, even though Austin’s

  beautiful.”

  Adriana sighed. “I know what you mean. Leaving home is never

  easy, even if it’s for love.”

  Juliana took Adriana’s hand and held it in her own. She smiled in

  understanding at all that Adriana had given up to be there in Texas with her.

  “Peas for Joseph too.”

  “No, mom!” Joseph protested. He gave Taylor a pleading look, but

  she shrugged and added a scoop to his plate as well.

  After that, they passed around the chicken. Adriana had taken care

  to cut a few of the breasts into smaller pieces for the kids.

  Taylor nearly groaned when she took the first bite of the delicious

  chicken. The meat was tender, and the flavors burst over her tongue, spicy

  and sweet. She wasn’t much of a cook. She never had been. Chicken like

  this was firmly beyond her skill set, though she was tempted to ask Adriana

  for the recipe. She’d probably dry it out, but maybe with a few tries she’d

  succeed.

  She didn’t like that so far, that also seemed to be her philosophy for

  finding a job. She
’d moved to Austin two months ago. She’d been lucky to

  get a tiny apartment. She’d saved like crazy before deciding she was going

  to make the move, and her parents had given her enough money to pay the

  first months’ rent and the security deposit. She’d come to Austin without a

  job, without knowing for certain what school she was going to send Chloe

  to. She’d been absolutely terrified of leaving the small town she’d called

  home for the first twenty-six years of her life, but she knew it was the right

  move.

  Glancing around the table at Adriana, Juliana, and Joseph, Taylor

  knew that this was what she wanted. She’d had her parents back home, but

  she hardly had any friends after she’d come out. People were openly hostile

  at first, and even after that settled down, she knew that she’d never find

  someone to share her life with there. Austin was close. Less than an hour

  away from the farm. It seemed like the logical place to go. After living her

  whole life in a small town where everyone was always on the up and up

  when it came to everyone else’s business, Taylor had craved the anonymity

  of a big city.

  The first few weeks were the hardest. She’d done some research and

  got Chloe settled in a good school right as the beginning of September

  rolled around. It was a relief, getting Chloe into kindergarten, because it

  meant that she could find a job. She’d only ever been able to work part time

  at the gas station back home, while her mom watched Chloe a few nights a

  week.

  On the first day of school, Taylor had spotted Adriana and Juliana

  bringing Joseph to kindergarten together and her heart leapt when she

  realized that they were partners, not just friends. She’d made her way over

  to them, introduced Chloe while they introduced Joseph, and that was that.

  Chloe and Joseph ended up being great friends, while Taylor, Adriana, and

  Juliana bonded just about instantly as well.

  The two women didn’t mind at all when Taylor asked if they’d go

  for coffee with her and blurted out something terribly awkward about

  having just moved to Austin and not having any friends and being— well—

  a lesbian. They understood instantly that Taylor needed them. Adriana had

  left everything behind as well, and she knew how hard it could be.

  “How’s your job going?” Adriana asked, bringing Taylor’s attention

  back from the past once more. She shook her head slowly and glanced at

  Chloe. Adriana winced. “Sorry. I didn’t know. What happened?”

  “Some jerkus who— well— um— decided to stick his hands into

  my business. I told him off and I might have accidentally stepped on his

  foot. Hard.” She lowered her voice even though Joseph and Chloe were

  oblivious, stuffing chicken into their mouths and ignoring their peas. “My

  boss didn’t think it was appropriate and I may—well—I guess I’m looking

  for something else as of yesterday.”

  “Shoot,” Juliana sighed. “I’m sorry, Taylor. If I know of anyone

  hiring, I’ll pass it along.”

  “Thanks,” Taylor sighed.

  She concentrated on how delicious her chicken was instead of on the

  fact that it was the second job she’d lost in as many months. It took her a

  month to find her first job— a receptionist position which ended after she

  was late one too many mornings in a row because she had to get Chloe to

  school herself when she was late for the bus. It had only been three

  mornings out of the whole month, but she was still fired.

  Within a week, she had been lucky enough to find a server position

  at what was supposed to be a family restaurant. It was fast paced, but they

  worked around her schedule. She’d started at nine and got off at two, which

  left her more than enough time to get home and be there waiting at the bus

  stop for Chloe. If that arsehole could have kept his hands to himself, she’d

  still have her job. She’d been coming from the men’s washroom and she’d

  been carrying an entire tray of food. He’d not so accidentally grabbed her

  bottom as she went by, pinching sharply. She hadn’t even dropped her tray.

  Without thinking, she’d backed into him, stepped on his shoe, and planted

  her elbow in his side. Of course, she was the one fired.

  “You’ll find something else,” Adriana assured her. “I have some

  friends too. Let me ask around for you. I’m sure something will come up.”

  “Thank you both. Really.” Taylor stabbed a piece of chicken and

  smiled broadly. “This is amazing, by the way. Thank you so much for

  having us over.”

  “It’s my mom’s recipe,” Adriana said, and Juliana covered her hand

  again, on top the table. Adriana smiled back at her, a soft, tender smile. A

  lover’s smile.

  That secret, shared smile between the two women touched Taylor

  and cheered her up. Everything would be fine. She was a hard worker. She

  knew that life sometimes got hard, but that was no reason to give up. This

  was just another setback. Her friends were right. She would find something.

  She had a small amount of savings to get her through. More

  importantly, she had supportive, wonderful people around her who accepted

  and loved her for who she was. She didn’t have to hide here. She could sit

  with Juliana and Adriana and envy their obvious love. She could laugh and

  smile when Joseph spat out a mouthful of peas he just couldn’t swallow.

  She could hope, because she had a gorgeous, healthy, happy daughter.

  She’d found another life in Austin. It might not be everything that she

  wanted, yet, but she was going to work hard, and hope hard, and keep

  smiling hard, until that changed.

  Chapter 2

  Christina

  Christina Hilford wished she could will things into working out. She’d

  come all the way from New York just over three weeks ago. She’d been so

  excited to get to Austin at first. She thought being headhunted was proof of

  her personal success. Of course, her dad wasn’t in agreement, but when was

  something she’d ever done anything that was good enough for him?

  Right. That would be never.

  As a head of a big company, success seemed to follow him around.

  It was slightly depressing how everything he touched almost literally turned

  to gold. The press loved her father. Christina’s two brothers worshipped the

  man. She’d always wanted to make her dad proud of her, but apparently

  moving to Austin to join the new branch of a decidedly up— and coming

  new company wasn’t exactly the route to fatherly acceptance.

  Christina had been doing the same kind of work in New York, with

  an even larger, more established venture capitalist group. She’d given up

  everything to make the move. Her apartment in New York, her friends, her

  family— although they had never been close anyway. She really, really

  wanted it to work out.

  Christina closed her eyes in the middle of organizing a stack of files in

  her office. Everyone got an office here. The place was classy. No cubicles

  for the Stellar Fund Venture Capitalist Group.

  She laid out a stack of new proposals. They were all good. She’d

  interviewed ea
ch and every single applicant herself. Now came the hard

  part— going through and deciding who to pass up the ladder for funding

  and making the harder call on who would get denied.

  She didn’t like crushing people’s dreams. That wasn’t why she’d made

  the move to Austin. She had loved her old job. She had loved living in New

  York. She enjoyed the fast-paced lifestyle, the way the city never seemed

  quiet. She’d even liked her tiny, cramped, overpriced apartment.

  In the end, after receiving a call from the head of the Stellar Fund

  Venture Capitalist Group, she’d decided that she just needed a change. She

  felt like it was the right move in her career. She wondered how many other

  thirty-four-year-old, Harvard educated, career minded women would have

  given up New York to go south. It seemed to her that it was probably the

  other way around, but that really didn’t bother her. In the end, her hard

  work in New York had paid off and that was what mattered, not the fact that

  her father thought she should have stayed put instead of venturing out of her

  comfort zone for a new experience.

  “Hey— um…”

  Christina jerked her head up at the high, thin voice coming from the

  doorway of her office. April Reed— a fitting name because the woman was

  literally just about as slim as one— adjusted her bright pink fuzzy sweater.

  She tugged at it, stretching it until it hung limply and loosely about her

  narrow hips.

  She forced a smile, even though she was annoyed at the interruption.

  Her thoughts might not have been pleasant— when she thought about trying

  to live up to her father’s legacy, they seldom were— but she still didn’t like

  the disruption.

  April tucked a strand of mousy, thin brown hair behind her ear. She had

  thick, blocky glasses on, which contrasted sharply with her long, thin nose