Undercover Secretary (Supernatural Society Book 1)

by Dominica Bolden

  He slightly changed the angle and thrust again, making me whimper as I spasmed a miniature climax around him. Pushing me roughly into the wall, the jerking movements of his hips intensified as he chased his own release.

  I could feel the tell tale signs of my own impending release building up once more as the tips of my toes started to tingle as if set aflame. The heat slowly built up, crawling upwards at a steady rate as he pounded into me at a punishing pace, moan after moan spilling from my lips as I tried to keep up with him. I could feel that I was close, oh so close to coming. My entire body trembled under the efforts to keep it at bay just for a little bit longer.

  The white hot pleasure building inside of me suddenly snapped and I let out a guttural cry, his name on the tip of my tongue.

  He moaned as he picked up his pace, pounding into me with wild abandon, the heat exploding inside of me almost threatening to manifest into a physical form as I came, juices dripping down my thighs.

  The echoes of pleasure still rippled throughout my body as he jerked his hips against mine, chasing his own release before shuddering as he finally found it.

  EIGHT

  Vincent

  I could almost see her come back to her senses as she caught her breath.

  My own breath was almost as unsteady as I pulled away and tucked myself back into my pants. She followed suit and straightened her clothing back into place, though her hair wasn’t as easy a fix.

  The tension between us was thick and loomed heavily as I cleared my throat, “Penelope-”

  She held up her hand. “This was a mistake.”

  I swallowed hard. “I-”

  She shook her head firmly, “Don’t worry, it won’t happen again.”

  “Penny,” I tried again, softly murmuring her name as I took a step towards her, my hand out.

  She shifted away from the wall where we’d been pressed up against not too long ago, edging towards the door.

  “I just…” She evaded my hand, putting some distance between us as she shied away from me. I couldn’t help the pang of hurt that curled in my chest at the implication that came with her reaction. “I just can’t right now.”

  Part of me knew I needed to let her go so she could work through her thoughts.

  But another part of me was scared that once she did finally work through them, she would be out of my reach.

  My hand balled into a fist and dropped to my side as I took a step back, giving her the space she was requesting.

  She quietly made her way to the door, with me slowly trailing behind her.

  She all but broke out into a run as soon as she hit the hallway.

  I had to fight the animalistic urge to chase after her, a battle that took all of my willpower.

  “Are you kidding me right now?” A familiar voice rang out, turning my attention away from my fleeing secretary.

  I glanced over my shoulder, eyeing my cousin—Malika Amare—as she stalked down the sparse hallway in my direction. Clayton Adams, her bodyguard slash secretary was hot on her heels.

  He stood a discreet distance away while she began to ream into me.

  “You couldn’t have waited?” she demanded, a scowl marring her face.

  “What?”

  “Seriously?” She barely kept the snarl out of her voice as she rummaged through her purse for something. “You know half of the guests are shifters and would be able to smell your indiscretions!”

  I opened my mouth to respond when she finally pulled her hand out of her purse and started spraying me down.

  I immediately braced myself from the offensive chemicals she was bombarding me with only to frown at the barely noticeable scent of eucalyptus that wafted from the can.

  “What is that?” I asked, wracking my brain for the answer. I felt like I should have known what it was.

  “It's a can of Scent Cleanser,” she informed me absently as she continued to hose me down.

  Glancing at the logoless aerosol can, I frowned. As far as I was aware, the formula was still in the midst of development and nowhere near ready for trial runs.

  “I thought it was still in development.”

  “It is.”

  I huffed, crossing my arms as she walked around me, continuing to mask the scent of sex from my person. “But you’re using it.”

  “This is basically a one use can.”

  “Really?”

  “Yep. They’re still having issues making the formula more effective but I was able to talk a few cans out of the head scientist,” she informed me with a wink.

  Ew.

  I could barely repress a shudder. I did not want to hear about my cousins sex life.

  “Anyway, enough about this,” she began, straightening my collar, “It's about time for the-”

  I held up a hand, cutting her off. “No.”

  “No?”

  “No.”

  She blinked, placing her hands on her hips with a scowl. “I didn’t even get a chance to say what-”

  I huffed out a sigh, murmuring, “I’m going home, Mali. I’ve had a rough night.”

  She gave an unladylike snort. “Yeah, okay.”

  “I’m serious. I’m done for the evening,” I informed her, taking a step in the direction Penelope had run off in.

  “You know Auntie will be pissed.”

  If I was lucky, I might be able to catch up to her before she got too far. “I’ll risk it,” I called out over my shoulder as I broke out into a jog.

  I knew that given the circumstances, my mother would have my hide if I didn’t follow after Penelope.

  * * *

  Penelope

  I don’t know what the fuck I was thinking, having sex with Vincent last night. I mean honestly, I wasn’t a teenage girl anymore, addled with uncontrollable hormones. I was a grown ass woman with self-control damnit.

  Or at least I thought I did.

  With a frustrated gowl, I shook my head, struggling to finish the rest of my run. I’d added an extra two miles to my normal four and was a little over three miles into my run and I was already feeling the effects of sitting on my ass on a constant basis.

  I’m definitely getting out of shape from this desk job, I thought with disgust. Hopefully once this assignment was over, I could go back into the field.

  My mind was already formulating ways of adding more exercise into my gym regime as I forced myself to finish my run through the pain.

  The last half mile I allowed myself to slow into a jog, absolutely refusing to walk the last little bit.

  I had my pride, damnit.

  I was brought up short upon spotting a man standing directly in front of my apartment door. I was immediately on edge, feeling the muscles in my legs and arms tense as I studied them from the top of the stairs.

  I wasn’t expecting anyone or a delivery.

  I could feel my magic swell in response to my apprehension, tingling just beneath my skin.

  Frowning, I called out, “Can I help you?”

  At my voice, the man whirled on his heels to face me. In his hands were an abundance of purple lilacs that were almost falling out of his arms - the bouquet was massive.

  He nodded eagerly, replying, “Ah, yes. I’m looking for a,” he paused to get a look at the card, “Penelope Hughes?”

  Since he didn’t appear to be a threat, I strode to his side with a sigh. “You’re looking at her.”

  “Great! I need you to sign for these, please,” he requested, prompting me with a handheld device for an electronic signature.

  “Um, sure I guess.” I complied with the request and accepted the flowers from the delivery man.

  Two guesses who they were from.

  But I didn’t need to guess. I knew without a doubt they were from Vincent. And while it might have been a bit cliched, I couldn’t help but soften a bit as the scent wafted about me.

  “Have a nice day, Ma’am.”

  “Thanks. You as well.”

  I unlocked my apartment as I heard his footsteps on
the stairs. Closing the door behind me I leaned against it, eyeing the lilacs in my arms.

  How in the hell had he discovered my favorite flower?

  I couldn’t contain the urge to lean into the bouquet and inhale.

  Heavenly.

  But still begged the question, how did he know? It’s not like I openly advertised it or anything.

  Not that his gift meant anything to me. I refused to even entertain the idea.

  It was just sex. I mean, we were two consenting adults and it was a one time…. Lapse in judgement. It didn’t mean a thing. To me or to Vincent.

  I’d already worked through my feelings on the matter and refused to dwell upon it any further.

  I pushed off from the door, a small smile tugging on my lips as I strode deeper into the small apartment, looking for something that might be able to hold the bouquet, but with a quick mental inventory, I knew I had nothing that would come close to being able to hold all of them.

  And then an idea struck.

  * * *

  The drive to my mother’s nursing home was a relatively short one, taking all of thirty minutes to pull up in the mostly empty parking lot.

  I grabbed the small bouquet I’d made her out of the abundance of flowers from the one Vincent had sent me. Making my way across the parking lot and pulling open the front door of the nursing home, I was greeted to an empty lobby.

  “Okay….”

  Walking past the front desk, I strode straight for my mother's room. Several of the resident’s doors were open and a few were wandering about, but otherwise it seemed deserted.

  At least of staff workers anyway.

  The smile slowly faded the further I walked inside the building. An overwhelming stench of urine seemed to saturate the hallway.

  By the time I reached my mother's room tears pricked my eyes, and not just because of the smell. How the hell could anyone allow this? Treat them like they didn’t deserve dignity? My heart hurt just thinking about it.

  I started to take a deep breath to steady myself, having forgotten about the stench for but a moment and began coughing instead.

  Fuck.

  Clearing my throat, I pushed into the room, praying that I would be pleasantly surprised. Unfortunately, I wasn’t.

  My mouth dropped as I took in the state of my mother, covered in her own filth. The blanket covering her soaked with urine and feces.

  The flowers in my arms dropped to the ground in my shock.

  She groaned—I’m assuming—from pain, and a righteous anger surged through me at the state of my mother. I could feel the air in the room starting to heat around me in reaction to my warring emotions.

  What the absolute fuck was going on!

  And for how long?

  It went without question that I wasn’t going to be allowing this to continue.

  NINE

  “I love you, mom,” I murmured, leaning over the older woman’s shoulder to press a kiss firmly against her cheek.

  She didn’t respond. Instead, she just stared down at the plate of untouched food in front of her.

  I was still working on finding her a placement in another nursing home since I’d abruptly pulled her out of her last one as soon as I saw the state they were leaving her in. I also made a call to the state about their treatment of their residents.

  I knew it might take a little while for the insurance to find a place for her, but the soonest anyone could place her was at least two months out.

  Since I was no longer paying the home, I decided to take the money I was shovelling them and some funds from what little bit of savings I had to hire a nurse to take care of her in the meanwhile. It hadn’t been too hard finding one I liked and willing to work around my schedule, thank the heavens.

  I was fine with this type of situation until I could look into another home for my mother. Unfortunately, in the long run, she wouldn’t be able to stay due to the nature of my work.

  It just wasn’t safe and I didn’t want to risk her safety in the slightest.

  I rolled my shoulders, a grimace etched on my face. Sleeping on the couch was going to be rough the next couple of months. I was kind of regretting not splurging for a slightly larger apartment, but at the time it wouldn’t have made sense to pay extra for another room that would be sparsely used, if I even got around to using it for anything other than storage.

  Pressing a kiss on my mothers’ forehead, I nodded at the nurse as I left.

  It took far too long to get to the office, though nothing about the journey had changed. Though I did feel charged, adrenaline picking up my pulse and forcing my heart to beat faster.

  By the time I arrived, I felt as if I’d run a marathon.

  Because of course I wouldn’t be able to act like the other night hadn’t happened.

  Why on Earth did I have to put myself in this predicament?

  Taking a much needed breath, I parked my vehicle and slowly gather my things, thoughts, and what little dignity I could muster before trudging reluctantly inside.

  * * *

  I stopped short at the sight of a blonde woman sitting at the desk across from mine, her head bent down as she looked at something on the desk.

  Who in the world…. My brows furled as I tried to place her. I was pretty certain that I hadn’t seen her anywhere before.

  I couldn’t help but wonder if she was a supernatural being. While almost all of the upper management was in one form or another a supe, that didn’t mean their underlings were. It made my job a little bit harder because of all of the secrecy clauses our society had.

  I finally cleared my throat after waiting for her to notice my presence. She jolted up with a start, instantly walking around the desk and holding out her hand.

  “Hi! You must be Penelope, right?”

  I eyed the cheerful woman and her extended hand with distrust. “...Right, and you are?”

  “I’m Mary Beth, your new assistant,” she informed me with an overly bright smile, her hand falling to her side.

  “Oh. I didn’t think they’d hire someone so quickly.”

  “Sorry, it’s not too much of a bother is it?”

  “No, no. You’re fine. I just wish I’d had some notice.” I refrained from rubbing my face in exhaustion. Honestly. Would it have hurt them to send me an email or give me a call to let me know they’d found someone?

  Rather than focus on that, I walked past her and set my things down at my desk, beginning to prepare for the day.

  “So, um. What should I be doing?”

  “Just um… give me a moment.” I wracked my brain trying to think of something she could do for the next little bit. “Have you ever been an assistant before?”

  “No, but I like to think I’d be able to pick it up in no time.”

  “Okay.” Strumming my fingers on my desk, I snapped my fingers as I finally came up with a solution. “So, what I’m going to do is have someone show you around the building so you can familiarize yourself with the layout of the office. Once you're through with that, it should be time for lunch.”

  “It’ll take that long?”

  “Yeah, it’s a pretty big building. And this way you can meet some of our colleagues and just familiarize. Take your time so you can get accustomed to the layout.”

  This would give me some time to figure out what duties I would be shifting to her.

  Plus it would also give me time to go over her employment file and see what kind of clearance she might have had.

  TEN

  Vincent

  I hadn’t caught up to Penelope before she left which I supposed was for the best. But I still silently cursed Malika all the way home all the while I placed an order for the biggest bouquet for Penelope for her favorite flowers—courtesy of my mother who thought it prudent to inform me of what she’d learned about Penelope in the time she worked under her. Though now I was grateful for what little knowledge I’d gained from half listening to her.

  I only hoped it helped give me a little bit of an
upper hand in my attempts to woo the woman.

  Since the Gala, I hadn’t been able to get her out of my mind. And to be honest, I was mentally smacking myself all weekend for not taking my mother up on her offer to meet Penelope before I took over as CEO.

  But I was looking forward to seeing her again and talking things out.

  I’d taken a hard look at my life and knew that I needed to change a bunch of things.

  I always knew I wanted to eventually settle down with a wife and family. And I knew now that what I’d thought was the right kind of woman for me clearly wasn’t.

  The previous women I’d dated didn’t even come close in comparison to Penny.

  I’d decided to give her some peace over the weekend to get her thoughts in order, after all what happened between us definitely changed things. But It definitely made me a bit anxious to get into the office to see her again.

  Breezing through security and the short ride up the elevator, I quickly made my way to my office.

  I stilled, my eyes coming to rest upon the woman I’d just been thinking about. I watched her work for a moment, smiling softly to myself.

  To be honest, I hadn’t been quite sure about how to proceed when I saw her again for the first time since… the other night. But she looked even more ravishing than ever.

  I was honestly surprised she hadn’t noticed me yet. She was usually very alert.

  After drinking up my fill of her beauty, I cleared my throat softly causing her to jolt in her seat, “I need to speak to you in my office.”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  The silence between us was thick with tension as she followed me into my office.

  With the door firmly shut behind us, I took a seat on the edge of the sofa, glancing up at the woman in front of me.

  Still uncertain as to what I was going to say, I clasped my hands together in front of me and began, “Penny…”

  “Look, about the other night. I’m willing to pretend it never happened and remain professional for the duration of my employment here,” she rushed out, fidgeting with the bottom of her blouse.