Perfect Kisses

by Maine, Miley

  But no. That would not be right. If I was going to be working with one of the big boys of tech, Caplan Industries, then everything I did publicly was now through a filter, right? I’d read all about this in Forbes or perhaps Redbook…? I wasn’t sure. But it was common knowledge that these days employers scanned their employee’s social media or had someone scan for them and they could use anything that you said they didn’t agree with or that they didn’t feel a representative of their brand should be saying and they would show you the door.

  It was a scary place. It made one’s brain start racking and churning trying to think of every idiotic thing you may have liked or posted or shared, or even commented on. That was crazy and a huge invasion of privacy in my opinion.

  I checked the clock on my phone, but only briefly. I didn’t want to look like I was going to sit there and play around on my phone the whole time, not that the receptionist was paying any attention to me. She was ignoring me completely and working on painting her nails. Occasionally, she would answer the phone. What a bitch.

  It was eight-twenty. Wow. He was really running behind. This was getting a little bit annoying. I’ve always had thin patience. I can’t stand to just wait around somewhere.

  I stretched my legs out in front of me and sighed. I wanted to get up and walk around and observe the place around me. But I didn’t. I stayed put right where I was.

  The time continued to drag on…and on… Soon, it was almost nine o’clock. I got up and decided to ask the receptionist a question. “Hey, can you remind him I’m still here. What’s going on?”

  She rolled her eyes at me. “He knows you’re here. He is busy and will be with you shortly.”

  My patience with this little twit was running thin. “How about you call back again?”

  I glared into her eyes, so she knew I meant business. She sighed and made the call once again. “Jill, Julie Ashburne is still here.”

  “It’s Ashby,” I corrected her.

  She gritted her teeth quickly and then with annoyance in her voice said, “Julie Ashby is still here for that meeting…. ok...” She hung up the phone and looked up at me. “He will be with you shortly. We apologize for the delay.”

  I groaned and sat back down. Was Tony making me wait on purpose? Was this some sort of a test, maybe? Or was he just that arrogant that he thought people would wait around for him until the end of time. Well, I was not any average person. I planned to give him a piece of my mind when I finally did sit down with him.

  I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. I would not do any such thing, but I was very annoyed. I needed this job too much to do anything to risk it, and he knew that. It was precisely the reason why he felt justified in making me wait until he was ready for me. He probably did it all the time just on basic fucking principle.

  The time ticked on for another twenty minutes before the receptionist got the phone call. She looked up at me and said, “Tony will see you now. Go on back.”

  I took a deep breath and felt the fear returning. It was real now. It was show time.

  3

  Tony

  I finished the phone call that I’d been on for the past hour and then told Jill to send the girl in. It was a rather busy morning, and I didn’t really want to take the time to do this. Sometimes I wished I didn’t spread myself so thinly that I had to do things like this, but I had to keep up on my appearances. That was part of the brand. And doing these types of involvements with schools and other organizations had always been a great boost for the company, especially when I threw my face on them. So, I would continue to do all this for now.

  The girl entered a few moments later. She seemed shy and timid, which I half expected. But I did not expect her to be so beautiful. I looked up as she walked in and I felt my heart do a double beat. The girl was kind of tall, curvy, wearing a sexy red and black business suit that accentuated her best attributes. It showed just the right amount of cleavage to leave my imagination hungry and wanting to see more. Her legs were slender, but a little thick. They beckoned me to come to them and run my hands over their smooth skin, and then part them so that I could come in between her legs over and over again.

  I felt my cock rising in my pants and I was tempted to adjust myself. But I was still on the other side of my large mahogany desk. This girl’s face was beautiful. She had a sweet smile with the most beautiful eyes. Her cheeks sunk in just enough to create sexy hollows that were highlighted with a subtle bit of makeup. Her eyes sparkled brightly.

  This woman was truly staggering. I found myself almost leering at her as she walked through the door of my office.

  I stood up and walked around the desk to introduce myself. I perched on the edge of the desk and leaned back, letting her come to me. I watched her moving slowly across the floor, her curves bouncing up and down so delicately. I had to fight to keep my gaze from staring at her legs as they moved. Her skirt kept riding up ever so slightly as she walked towards me driving my imagination wild.

  Yes, I wanted her. I knew I wanted her from the moment I laid my eyes on her beauty. It wasn’t just the physical form that drew me in. There was something extra there. She had a way about her that I couldn’t put my finger on, something that drew me in and convinced me that this woman was something, and I better get to know exactly how special she really was.

  “Hello,” I said. “I’m Tony Caplan.”

  I held my hand to her. She stepped forward and shook my hand. Her gaze caught mine and I saw something in her eyes that I wasn’t used to seeing. I saw… aggravation? Was that the right word? That kind of caught me off guard. Most people that I meet for the first-time approach me with a bit of fear and even a little awe, even though that annoys the shit out of me. But rarely do I find someone who really is not caught up with who I am and my family legacy.

  “I’m Julie Ashby,” she said.

  Julie sat down in one of the chairs in front of me without being asked and stared straight ahead. I watched her for a moment sitting there. I was a bit perplexed as to the way she was acting, even though she hadn’t really done anything yet that I was taken aback by. It was really just her overall attitude. It was so bizarre to me. And I liked it. This was very different.

  “Great to meet you, Julie,” I said. I looked at her for a few moments, wondering if she was going to start telling me all about herself and how amazing she was and how many wonderful ideas she had going around inside her head to help the company. That was the typical thing I saw in most of the interns we hired and then reality grounded them quickly and they realized that almost everything they’ve been doing in school has not actually prepared them for the real world. This jungle is much more dangerous than it looks.

  “So,” I said. “Would you like to tell me a bit more about yourself?”

  She didn’t answer at first, but then she licked her lips and said, “I was hoping you might apologize for having me wait so long out there. We had a meeting scheduled an hour ago.”

  I was flabbergasted that she would even begin this way, but I was also intrigued. I stared into her eyes a moment and I felt my stare grow a little bit hard as she touched on something that had annoyed me. It was a very slight emotional wound. This was going to be interesting.

  Julie’s face softened suddenly, and she recoiled just a bit. I could see she was nervous, as I expected her to be, but she had that fire inside of her. I loved to see that in someone else, especially a beautiful woman who was capturing my interest more by the second. She was a firecracker.

  “Well, I do apologize,” I said. “The world of business is not always so cut and dry. I try to adhere to a schedule, and I hate when others are late, but at times there are things which demand attention that you can’t put off. Sometimes those things come at you out of thin air.”

  “Ok,” she said. “I’m sorry. I’m off to a rough start today.” She smiled warmly at me. I loved that winning smile. I could watch it forever. It was enchanting.

  “So, are you ready for the Holidays?�
�� I asked her with a grin as I pointed to the decorations that adorned my office. I hardly even noticed them anymore. Jill insisted on putting them up every year. If it were up to me then I wouldn’t even bother with them. Then again, I wouldn’t bother with a lot of things. That was why Jill was so vital to my success. She was the best secretary I’d ever had.

  Julie laughed. “I guess so. I haven’t really thought too much about it.”

  “Well, that is unfortunate,” I said. “I really enjoy this time of the year. Everywhere you turn, everything is so festive and fun. I wish I had more time to enjoy it.”

  “I know what you mean.”

  “Is your family from around here?” I asked.

  “They live in Modesto.”

  “Ah, have you ever been to the east coast? That is where they do Christmas right. It’s cold and chilly. The air is crisp at this time of year. Sometimes they have snow. We have all this fake stuff here and we are all walking around in t-shirts. It all looks so lame. But I think the spirit is still there, right?”

  “Sure,” she said. “I love Christmas. When I was a kid every building you walked into seemed to be filled with Christmas cheer and decorations. It seemed that way at the time when I was a kid at least.” She bounced on her toes nervously.

  I smiled and gave her an understanding nod.

  “Well, let me take a look at that resume of yours. I really enjoyed it when I looked at it during the selection for this year’s intern. It was a close competition as always, but something about your letter and the resume really stood out to me.”

  I walked back around to my desk and slid into my chair. I grabbed her resume off the top and began to read. “Top of your class at Princeton. That’s fantastic. Honor Society, Sorority, charity work, and even some athletics. Softball? Nice. Champions? Got to love that.”

  I was enjoying watching her smile get wider every time I read off another one of her great accomplishments. She had actually done quite a bit with her education. “We value people here who are self-starters. They don’t have to be told too much about what to do. They handle problems by their own whenever they arise. They don’t have to ask for help that much. And they love what they do. They have that drive in them that really thrives on accomplishment. That is the most important thing, as well as creativity. You seem to embody all of that, which is why we chose you.”

  I meant every single world. I hadn’t actually been the one who had weeded out all of the applications, but Benjamin Stevens had done a great job as he always did. As I read through Julie’s resume, I began to like her even more. The woman had me suspended with lust just sitting across from her.

  It had been a few months since I’d dated anyone that I really connected with. It didn’t work out though. And I was actually starting to lose some faith in the whole process of choosing someone. I didn’t really want to go through that whole thing of meeting someone, trying to force a connection, and then it not working out anyway. I was beginning to think I’d never find that perfect woman. I had already found her once and I lost her.

  There was only one time I was truly in love. I’d never been married, but I had been very close once. Amanda… she was my fiancée. She died in a tragic car accident when we were both twenty-two, during our last year of college. She was hit head on by a drunk driver. She died at the scene.

  I had thought of her every day since then. I wasn’t sure I’d ever love anyone like that again.

  And lately, I hadn’t even felt that pure, raw animal attraction that really makes you feel alive. That special spark, that chemistry, or whatever people want to call it.

  Until now I wasn’t sure what it was, but I had started to feel that special thing for Julie. I wanted to learn everything about her. I wanted to know what made her tick, what she wanted out of life, and if she felt any real attraction to me at all.

  “Thanks,” Julie said.

  “Absolutely,” I replied. “Well, let me show you to your desk and what you will be spending the majority of your time working on.”

  “Ok,” Julie said with a smile. I could tell she was excited and ready to tear things up. She wanted to get started. I could hardly blame her.

  I led her to the elevator and then down to the tenth floor, which was our marketing department. Julie’s degree was in marketing and that was what we hoped she’d be able to bring most to the table.

  We made our way to the main conference room and I briefly introduced Julie to everybody and what they were all working on. She seemed very interested and the group welcomed her right into their fold. I explained a bit. “We are launching several new products right now. It is the holiday season, so you will be working closely with this team. Right now, they are perfecting the newest software for our latest mobile game system. We stand to make a killing this holiday season if we can launch the software and have it available for download by Christmas Eve. So, you might be working some long days right at first. I hope you can handle that.”

  “Sure,” she said. “That sounds like fun to me.”

  “Great,” I said. “Let me show you your desk and make sure your log in works. You will use the dummy log in the first time and then it will prompt you for a more secure one.”

  “Ok,” she replied.

  We arrived at her cubicle and she sat down and tried the logins that I gave to her. She changed a few things to personalize them and then she was off and running. “Ok, now you will be notified of almost everything by email, so make sure you are checking that at least once an hour. It will highlight when something is sent, but it’s easy to miss if you aren’t here, or you are actually doing something else.”

  “Got it,” she said.

  I noticed how good her perfume smelled as I was leaning over her showing some of the basic spreadsheets that we used. It was intoxicating. And I also realized that from this angle I could easily peek down her shirt. Oh, the temptation. I was proud of my restraint.

  “So, do you think you got everything down pretty much? If you need any help, Marly is our marketing supervisor, so she is the one to ask. Her office is at the end of the hall. Very nice lady.”

  “Ok. I think I’ve got it.”

  “Fantastic,” I said. I started to turn away, but then I remembered something. “Hey, you should come to the Christmas party this Friday. It’s a blast. We do it every single year. It is always a great time.”

  She seemed unsure. “Really? I just started. I’m just an intern.”

  “You are going to be a valuable asset to this company. So, yes. You should definitely come.”

  She shrugged. “Ok. I’ll do that.”

  “Great,” I said. “We do this secret Santa thing every year that is a lot of fun as well. We’ll explain more at the party. Is there anything else you need from me right now?”

  “No, I think I’m all set.”

  “Great. Welcome aboard, Julie.”

  “Thanks.”

  I walked away and didn’t turn back until the elevator door was closing shut in front of me. Julie… wow… that woman had my soul on fire now. I wanted her. I needed her. But I didn’t want to show any interest yet. She’d just met me. I was the boss. She was an intern. She wanted to get her bearings first and meet her co-workers, find out what her job entailed, and then get comfortable with that.

  And besides, I really didn’t want to date someone who worked for me again. I’d done it a few times in the past and then when it didn’t work out and we broke up, the tension around the office was just weird. I hated that. I didn’t want to experience that with Julie.

  For now, I was just going to play things a bit cool. But I knew that no matter how much I fought it, I was damn hard attracted to that woman. I lusted for her. I was still thinking about her when I got back to my office. I checked the time and decided it should have been late enough in the morning for a drink, but I decided to be sober and just consume crazy amounts of coffee instead. I filled up a large mug and then went to my office to relax a moment and prepare for my next meeting.
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  I was fired up about that. If it went well, then I would be consuming one of my competitors and I would continue to grow my family’s fortune. At this point the money was more about keeping score than anything. It was all fun and games it would seem. The sport of my choice was business. It was a game that I happened to excel at. My father had taught me well.

  I found myself thinking about the Christmas party as I looked out the window of the twelfth floor and peered out. Even without the snow and the colder temps, the Los Angeles area still knew how to celebrate a great holiday. For the next several weeks it would look like one big party going on everywhere you turned.

  I loved this time of the year. I wished I could truly get out and celebrate it more, but this also happened to be the time of year when everyone was doing their best to make a buck and business was booming.

  As I stood there watching the city, I wished that Julie was right there with me to celebrate the season. I was already having a hard time getting her off my mind. And something told me that it was going to get even harder.

  4

  Julie

  I couldn’t believe those words had come out of my mouth. I had actually demanded an apology from Tony Caplan for making me wait. What the fuck was I thinking? I wanted to crawl under the chair I was sitting in. I wasn’t sure what was going on in Tony’s mind. I could imagine him wondering how this new intern dare have the guts to say something like that to him. But he laughed it off and embraced me anyway.