by Timms, Lexy
For a moment, I thought about how that would be. If he really was looking for arm candy for company functions, there was no doubt that I might meet some interesting people and be able to network a little. People who would actually see me for what I was.
But of course, I wasn’t going to sleep with McGregor, and the tabloids, as much as I hated them, painted a pretty clear picture of the man. That was what he was looking for.
It wasn’t only the sex part that bothered me, though. I was through being arm candy for any guy. I wanted to shine for my own merit, not just because I looked good next to someone else. And I knew that there would be rules that went along with such an arrangement. McGregor would expect me to dress a certain way and act a certain way. He might even forbid me from talking to anyone when he wasn’t around, which would make it damned difficult to find other people willing to hire me for my brains.
No, that wasn’t a good idea. Even if McGregor somehow looked past my curves and thought I was worthy of showing off at the kinds of lavish company parties he had been rumored to have.
“Why McGregor Enterprises?” the man asked suddenly, as though he could tell that I wasn’t interested in the position any longer.
I shrugged again. “I happened to see your ad in the paper,” I admitted.
“Why did you quit your previous job?”
“There was no upward mobility,” I told him. Also true. At McGregor’s confused look, I elaborated. “They wanted me to keep the same bottom-floor job for the rest of my life. I’m just a girl in the business world.”
There was a thoughtful look to McGregor’s eyes, and I wanted to call him on it. It wasn’t like he could understand where I was coming from. Not only was he not female, but he had never had to work to get to where he was now. He had never started out on the bottom rung of the corporate ladder, and he hadn’t really had to work his way to the top. No, the company had been handed over to him when his father died. He couldn’t possibly understand.
I held my tongue, though. No point in getting into that. No point in hearing him try to tell me that my rank in the office would have nothing to do with my gender, or that my lack of mobility at my previous job must have had something to do with a lack of drive on my part. Or a lack of commitment, or a lack of ability. I had heard it all before. The business world was still an old boy’s club and they covered for each other. Guys seemed to love to make excuses on behalf of dudes they had never met, and women were just as quick to jump to conclusions that other women must be wrong about such things.
“What position would you like to have, one day?” McGregor asked suddenly, surprising me for the first time.
I grinned at him, knowing that I wasn’t going to get this job anyway. So why not be blunt about what I wanted?
“CEO,” I told him. It managed to startle a laugh out of him, but he didn’t sound at all incredulous or disparaging. He sounded... impressed.
Chapter 7
Daniel
I STARED DOWN AT ABBY’S resume as I thought back over the interview I’d had with her. I had to admit, she had impressed me. She definitely knew what she was talking about when it came to dealing with clients and everything else. Not only that, but she had done her research on McGregor Enterprises; that much was obvious from a few of her answers. She was the first person I’d interviewed who made me feel certain that she knew more about the company than she knew about what was said about me in the tabloids. I liked that.
I liked her, to be honest. She was spunky and bold. Confident, but not arrogant. I could tell that she was the type of person who would stand up for what she believed in, even if it meant standing up to me, her boss. She could be just what I was looking for.
Except that some of her answers, as well as the tightly clenched jaw and some expression in those pretty green eyes of hers, made me wonder if she even really wanted this job or if she just wanted to see if I would hire her.
There was a knock on the door. “Come in,” I answered reflexively.
It was Erin. “How did it go today?” she asked.
I sighed and shuffled together the papers on my desk. “You were right,” I told her. “Abby did have potential. At least for a probationary offer.”
Erin grinned lopsidedly at me. “So you’d like me to send Ms. James an offer of employment?”
I glanced at my watch. Less than ten minutes since Abby had walked out of there. I paused, deliberating. There were other people whom I had arranged interviews with. Maybe there was someone else in there with more experience and lower aspirations. Someone who was better suited to being my advisor.
But there was a part of me that knew the only reason I was really looking for excuses not to hire Abby was that I wanted to put my hands all over her body. Couldn’t do that if I was her boss. That would be the tabloid story of the century just waiting to happen. It wasn’t right for me to not offer her the job just because I wasn’t sure that I could stop myself from wanting her.
I stood up. “I’ll tell her,” I told Erin. I strode hurriedly out of the office and rushed down to the sidewalk, hoping that Abby hadn’t driven there for her interview, in which case she would have already disappeared.
She might have disappeared even on foot, I realized as I stood on the sidewalk out in front of the building, the same place where just last week I had been photographed with my arms around two of my employees. Everyone had taken that surprisingly well. Another display of their trust in me: they hadn’t even suspected that anything might have happened between me and the two women. Or maybe it was just that they knew their coworkers well enough to know they hadn’t gone home with me.
I suddenly spotted Abby moving through the other pedestrians to my right, and I hurried to catch up with her, glad that my legs were so much longer than hers. She didn’t appear to be in any hurry, either, merely meandering down the sidewalk as though she had the rest of the day to kill. And maybe she did.
I caught her arm, pulling her to a stop. “Hey,” I said.
Abby looked up at me in surprise that quickly turned to suspicion. “Hey,” she said back at me, her tone carefully level as though she wasn’t happy to see me but was trying to hide that from me.
“I’d like to offer you the job,” I told her.
“You would?” Abby asked, sounding shocked.
I nodded at her. “Like I said at the start of the interview, you weren’t the first person who came to my office today,” I told her. “But you definitely blew all the other candidates out of the water. I can tell that you can confidently navigate the business world. And I like someone who doesn’t settle for less.”
Abby was looking more and more surprised as I continued talking.
“It would be a trial position, to see how we work together,” I added. “But if things go well, we’d hire you on for good.”
“A trial position,” Abby said, as though trying the words out in her mouth. She slowly nodded. “All right,” she said.
“Can you start tomorrow?” I found myself asking. I didn’t want to give her time to reconsider or to interview with anyone else. I had learned long ago that the more time you gave a person between the interview and their start date, the more chance they had to shop around for better offers.
Abby nodded again. “Sure thing, tomorrow,” she said. “I’ll be there.”
“Perfect,” I said. I gave her a serious look. “It’s going to be a busy day, and I’ll need you to have your head in the game. But if all goes well, I’ll take you out for drinks after work and we can talk about your ambitions, with the company and otherwise.”
Abby stared at me for a long moment and then gave me a sly smile. “Do you take all your new hires out for drinks?” she asked, and I knew exactly what she was implying. But it wasn’t like that, despite whatever kinds of stories the tabloids liked to spin about me.
My serious look didn’t falter as I nodded. “I do, actually.”
I could tell that Abby didn’t really believe me, and I began to wonder whether I�
��d done the right thing in hiring her on. Maybe I really should have found a man to fill the advisor position. Maybe Abby wanted something different from what I had thought. But I had always prided myself in my ability to read people, and she really didn’t strike me as someone who was just interested in this position because she wanted to sleep with me.
Then again, maybe she didn’t just want to sleep with me. It could be that half of her really wanted the job and the other half of her really wanted to sleep with me. But she’d quickly learn that that wasn’t the way that things were done around McGregor Enterprises. Once she got to know all the others in the office, she’d realize that I was telling the truth about the drinks thing. And realize that I didn’t mix my personal and professional life.
“Eight a.m. tomorrow,” I told her. “Meet me in my office.”
Abby sketched a loose salute that was somehow a mix between accepting of my authority and mocking. “I’ll be there, sir,” she said. I watched her turn and slip away down the sidewalk, wondering what I had just done. Abby would never be the kind of woman who would bend over backward to please me; I could tell that already. As much as I liked the fact that she was willing to stand up for what she believed in, I had to wonder if we were ever going to be able to compromise or if she and I were doomed to always be at odds.
Things could get messy if the latter proved to be true.
But anyway, it was a probationary hire, until I saw if things worked between us. If not, I could fire her and restart the interview process. Better just wait and see how things went with her before I started jumping to any conclusions.
Chapter 8
Abby
I COULDN’T HELP THE butterflies in my stomach as I rode up the elevator to McGregor Enterprises on Thursday morning. I didn’t know what had possessed me to accept McGregor’s job offer the previous day, but he had seemed so earnest in his praise of me. It made me wonder if I had read the whole situation wrong. Maybe he really was looking for an advisor. Maybe I had just read too much into the way his eyes lingered on my body. Maybe he wasn’t as terrible as the media made him out to seem.
Whatever it was, I was in this now. No backing out. I had told him that I would be there by eight this morning, and damned if I was going to be late.
I checked my reflection in the elevator mirror as I was whisked slowly up to the top floor of the office building. I had taken special care for my outfit and makeup that morning. More so than I usually did, that was for sure. I felt powerful in my silky green blouse and fitted black slacks.
Even though I would never sleep with McGregor, there was something about looking sexy and professional that made me feel like I had power over him. My heels added a little extra height but also ensured that he would spend at least a couple of minutes staring at my shapely legs. And although he wouldn’t see the lacy black bra and panties I had hidden under the rest of my clothes, they also gave me a confidence that I wasn’t totally feeling.
I was nervous. I wanted this position to work out, in spite of my confusion about what McGregor was really looking for. I wanted this to be the position I had been looking for, the one that I had initially thought it could be when I saw the ad in the paper. I wanted him to challenge me.
But there was also a part of me that just plain wanted McGregor to think I was sexy. I might not want to sleep with him, and I had long since gotten over the fact that I would never be a model, not with curves like mine. But I knew that McGregor was an attractive man, and I knew he liked to surround himself with attractive people.
I could tell that he had hired me for my brain, but it would be nice for him to appreciate the way that I looked around the office too. I wanted to make a good first impression. Or second impression, I supposed.
Besides, McGregor had warned me it was going to be a busy day. Every bit of confidence would help.
I got off the elevator on the top floor and headed over to greet Erin, the receptionist, just as I had the day before. Erin grinned at me and handed me my badge with my name on it. “Let me take you on a tour of the office,” she said, putting her incoming calls on hold and coming around the desk to greet me.
She introduced me around the office, and I was surprised at how friendly and welcoming everyone else was. I wondered what they thought of me, if they were sizing me up for my business acumen. Or did they all think that I was just there because McGregor wanted to sleep with me? Did he want to sleep with me?
I couldn’t believe that he would. I knew that Leanne would have tried to convince me otherwise. What were best friends for, after all. But I hadn’t told her I had accepted the job. I had thought about calling her the previous night, but ultimately, I had decided that I wanted to see how things went with the job before I told her about it. If I had to suffer some terrible humiliation at McGregor’s hands, I might not want to talk to her about it, or at least not right away. She would understand, I was sure.
I felt strange, keeping something like this from my best friend. There were no secrets between the two of us. But it wasn’t a secret, I told myself. I would tell her about my new job this weekend at the latest. Once I knew what exactly McGregor was looking for from me.
I glanced into one of the glassed-in conference rooms. It was full of men in suits, all chatting quietly amongst themselves. I wanted to ask Erin about them. I wondered who they were and if they were other people who worked here. Somehow, I didn’t think so, but I wasn’t sure what about them made me so sure that they were outsiders. There was just something about the people that worked for McGregor Enterprises that seemed at once so put-together and also casual. Those guys in there, they were 100 percent formal. Or something.
We reached the end of the tour, pausing outside McGregor’s office where I had interviewed the previous day. Erin tapped lightly on the door and then opened it. She nodded for me to go inside. When I did so, I saw that McGregor was on the phone, his feet propped up on the desk in front of him while he absentmindedly twirled a pen around the fingers in the opposite hand as the phone.
He nodded distractedly at me, giving me a quick smile, but he continued listening to whoever was on the other end without pausing to greet me.
“Go ahead and have a seat,” Erin told me in an undertone. “He should be off the phone soon, and he asked me to send you in here as soon as we were done with our tour.”
“Thanks,” I told her, smiling at her.
“Don’t worry about it!” Erin said before retreating back to her desk, shutting the door quietly behind her.
I turned back toward McGregor, slowly making my way into his office and trying to ignore the loud beating of my heart. It was just the two of us now, me and my new boss. With him on the phone like that, I got the chance to size him up in a way that I hadn’t the previous day.
I wished suddenly, wildly, that he wasn’t so damned hot. I felt like I could barely think straight now that I was alone in the room with him. It wasn’t just his physical looks, either. He had a certain charisma about him, the kind that drew a person in, the kind that made you want to do whatever you could to make this man happy. I had no doubt that the tabloids were right about the number of women around town who were just dying to please him.
Not that I was one of those women. Except that he was my boss, and I guess it was my job to keep him happy. Or at least to advise him well so that the business continued to thrive.
McGregor finished up the call he was on and set down the phone. “Good morning, Mr. McGregor,” I said pleasantly, trying to cover up the fact that I’d been staring at him through the end of his call.
He gazed at me for a long moment, a smile tugging at his lips. Then, he got to his feet. “Daniel, please,” he told me. “Mr. McGregor is too formal. We’re going to be working together a lot, you and I. I want you to feel comfortable around me.”
There was no chance of that happening, not unless he showed up at work wearing a burlap sack over his head, but I didn’t tell him that. Instead, I just nodded at him. “Daniel,” I agreed
.
“Ready for your first opportunity?” Daniel asked me, folding his arms across his chest and arching an eyebrow at me.
“Guess so,” I said, getting to my feet. Daniel nodded approvingly but didn’t say anything more to me. I was tempted to ask him just what our agenda was for the day, but I figured if that was something he wanted me to know, then he would tell me. Instead, I trailed after him as he led me out of the office and down the hall to the conference room I had spied before, the one full of men in suits.
Daniel breezed into the room as though he owned the place, and I could see the approving looks on a few of the other men’s faces. I trailed after him, wishing that I could feel as confident as him. Fake it ’til you make it, I reminded myself, pasting a smile on my face as I fell into the seat beside Daniel.
There really wasn’t so much of as reason to be nervous. I had done as much research on McGregor Enterprises as I could before I had even walked into the interview with Daniel the previous day. Not that I’d really had too much time to prepare. But whatever holes there had been in my knowledge, I had done even more research the previous evening. I knew what the company stood for, what Daniel worked for. Even beyond what little I had studied in my final year of business school.
I knew what my job was, here in the conference room. It was just when I was alone with Daniel that I had to wonder just what it was he was looking for from me. As long as there were other men around, though, he wouldn’t dare be too familiar with me.
Would he?
But no, I knew that whatever the media had to say about Daniel McGregor, his business associates were full of praise for his professionality. All I had to do was focus on this meeting and offer any advice I could, when asked for it. I’d need to think on my feet, and I’d need to pull out something that was at least a little bit creative.