by London Casey
“I would never leave you behind.”
I studied Bev’s face. She had a long face that came to an almost point at her chin. Her eyes were blue and her cheeks speckled with freckles. I had no idea what her actual hair color was because I’d seen it every color. Blonde to black and everything in between. Right now it was a fiery auburn color.
“Bev…” I held the towel against my body. “Why don’t you make the shirt a couch? Instead of the cliche sofa joke, just be a couch. Like a dumb, dry humor thing.”
“Yes!” Bev yelled. “Yes!”
She balled up the shirt and threw it to the floor.
She ran to her computer and I stepped over the shirt.
Back in my bedroom, it smelled like balsam and pine.
Basically it smelled like Christmas.
Which was better than the ink from the t-shirt machine.
I shut the door, dropped the towel, and looked down at myself.
I felt like I had a new wrinkle, curve, and-or stretch mark for every week that went by where I didn’t have sex.
I wasn’t a prude.
In fact, I had a date tomorrow night with a guy name Cam.
I bumped into him in a cafe and almost spilled coffee on him.
It was the kind of thing you’d read about in a book. He had a nice smile, nicer eyes, and when he asked me out, it was an easy yes.
I groaned and found my favorite panties and hoodie.
Yeah, they were granny panties, but they were so comfortable.
Nobody was going to be busting through my bedroom door to come take me to bed.
The closest thing I had to that was when Cole texted me at all hours of the night.
Cole… Cockhead Cole…
I shut my eyes and pictured him as Elevator Guy.
That guy could come take me anytime he wanted.
But my boss? Actual Cole?
He could kiss my granny pantied ass.
Now, for tomorrow night on my date with Cam, there would be no granny panties. I was going to wear my nice pair of panties… or maybe none at all.
Get it, Maya!
I sat down with my laptop and stared at some writing I had tried to do over the last week.
It was bad.
Really bad.
Bad enough that I shut the laptop and shut my eyes just for a minute.
Of course… I fell asleep.
I was such a party animal.
I dreamed of Elevator Guy.
Stopping the elevator.
Pinning me against the back wall of the elevator.
His fingers touching between my legs.
Moving down to his knees to take me with his mouth.
In my dream, I would put my head back and groan his name.
“Oh, Elevator Guy!”
But then he would laugh and correct me.
“My name is Cole, darling. And I’m your boss. And if you come right now, you’re fired!”
My eyes opened and I gasped for a breath.
I looked down and saw my right hand was between my legs.
I had been this close to finishing the night in a good way.
Fucking Cole ruined everything.
“Look at my pussy! Maya! Look. At. My. Pussy.”
I opened my eyes and coughed.
I thought I had been dreaming, but nope.
There was… a shirt with a cat winking… dangling in front of my face.
“What time is it?” I asked.
“It’s like five in the morning,” Bev said.
“What?” I asked.
I scrambled to find my phone.
There were no texts from Cole.
I sighed with relief.
“I might as well get ready and go to work,” I said.
I swatted Bev’s shirt out of my face and got out of bed.
“Look at the shirt,” she said. “I was up all night.”
I sighed. “Bev. Again. That’s an old joke. The whole cat being a pussy thing…”
“So what should I do? Make a vagina and have it say look at my cat?”
Before I could say a thing, Bev’s eyes went wide.
She rushed out of the room.
I sighed and shook my head.
I got dressed and realized I still had some money left over from Cole.
I snuck out of the apartment as Bev worked on her vagina shirt and I treated myself to a coffee and a breakfast sandwich.
I actually sat down in a small cafe and took it all in.
The smell of the coffee.
The murmur of people.
The aura of it all.
It was cozy.
I dreamed of sitting there with my laptop and writing.
I could have done just that… except I had nothing.
My brain felt like mush.
Working for Cole ruined all my mojo.
I told myself it would be okay.
I was getting better each week with things. Dealing with Cole. Figuring out money and life. Slowly putting story ideas together. There was no real rush for anything, which was good.
I got to the office thirty minutes early.
Cole was already there.
“How much do you love me?” he asked.
“Why?” I asked.
“I left you alone last night.”
“Oh. Right. You’re the best, Cole.”
“I left some work on your desk.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“My pleasure,” he said. “Also… my dry-cleaning needs to be picked up and taken to my apartment building. When you get there, ask for Isabel. Tell her you work for me. Make sure you say that. If she thinks you’re my girlfriend she’ll get pissed.”
Me? Your girlfriend? Never.
Heat flooded my cheeks. “Okay…”
“I’m serious about that, Maya.”
“You broke her heart?”
“More like she broke my bed,” he said with a wink.
I rolled my eyes.
Enduring the lame stories of his sexual conquests was just another part of the job.
“There’s a list of things to do,” he said. “Get to work. Oh, and I need coffee. What the fuck? Where’s my coffee?”
“Coming right up, Cole,” I said through gritted teeth.
We went our separate ways.
I made him his coffee and it was very tempting to spit in it.
Knowing Cole, he wouldn’t have cared.
He would have turned it into some sexual thing… like me spitting in his coffee was basically like me kissing him with my tongue or something…
I hated him.
My god, I hated him.
I ran all over the city doing chores for Cole.
Each thing had nothing to do with my actual job.
But I got to ride around on his dime. And I wasn’t physically in the office to hear his voice and deal with him.
Everything was through texts.
Which meant I could wave my middle finger at the screen and say whatever I wanted to say without him knowing.
When I got the dry-cleaning and took it to his building, Isabel… whoa. She was tall, tan, black hair, bright red lips, and she looked at me like she wanted to fight me. When I told her I was Cole’s secretary, she eased up a little.
That woman was psycho. And if Cole was messing around with women like that, sooner or later something bad was going to happen to him.
One thing that made me smile was when Cam texted me. He was looking forward to our date.
I was too.
I just needed to check in with Cole and then get home.
For a date… I had a process.
I needed a shower. Parts needed to be shaved. I had to wear the perfect outfit. And, of course, as I said before, I needed to figure out my panty situation. Sexy or none? That was the choice of the night.
Either way, tonight was the night. If I ruined things with Cam by appearing to be a whore for throwing myself at him on our first date, then oh well.
I had needs.<
br />
Cam had the tool I needed…
I got back to the office after I should have been gone for the day.
The office was quiet.
I hurried, hoping I could sneak in and out really quick.
I had papers and receipts to put on Cole’s desk and then I was out of there.
When I opened the door to his office, I heard a giggle and a growl.
I sighed when I saw a pair of woman’s legs wrapped around his body.
Long legs. One foot missing a high heel. The other foot still wearing one.
I walked to Cole’s desk like nothing was happening.
They both looked at me and I dropped the papers and receipts to his desk.
Cole’s lips were stained red with lipstick.
He grinned and winked at me.
The woman’s shirt was wide open, showing off a white, laced bra.
She pulled herself back on Cole’s desk and grabbed the front of her shirt.
“Nothing I haven’t seen before,” I said to her. “Is that a push up bra? What brand? I had one once and the underwire was like barbed wire. I felt like I had needles jamming into my tits all day.”
“Maya,” Cole said through gritted teeth. “What are you doing here?”
“Dropping off what you said to,” I said. “Okay, boss?”
“You can leave now,” he said.
“I was just leaving,” the woman said.
“Oh, darling, come on,” Cole said. “Maya is just my secretary. She means nothing. She is nothing. She was just leaving. You and I have a lot of work to do here.”
I was nothing?
My lip started to curl.
“No, I’m leaving,” the woman said.
I backed away from the desk.
Cole looked over his shoulder at me.
I showed my hands.
I cringed.
I mouthed oops to him.
He was pissed.
I had cockblocked him.
Which honestly felt good to do.
But I knew I was going to pay for that… big time.
Chapter Four
Cole
I stood behind my desk and stared across all the glass that separated me from Maya. My office had a really nice feature that with a click of a button, the glass became completely private. Her office didn’t. She was forever stuck that way too. Always exposed. Always able to be watched.
I hit that magic button, like I had done with Jezebel, wanting to show her what being the boss was really like.
The odds of Maya bursting into the office were slim. The odds of her busting me and doing what she did… was next to none.
After all I had done for her.
She wasn’t qualified for the job. She took way too long to learn the job. Calling and texting her sometimes took way too long to get her on the phone. She never thanked me for the money I sent to her when I needed her in the office early. Mind you, I knew damn well the hundred bucks here and there I sent was not used in one shot. Which meant I was the guy paying for her coffee and little muffins and cookies and all that shit she ate.
I could have been a much bigger dickhead than she thought I was.
The company was at a big turning point.
My focus needed to be one hundred percent fucking perfect all the time.
No excuses or questions.
And, yeah, that focus required women.
Women like Jezebel.
High heels. Beautiful legs. Wild eyes. Pouty lips.
And a wet slit.
I ground my teeth and looked at the phone on my desk.
Today suddenly felt like it was taking a detour.
One thing I was really good at…
Going with the flow.
I opened Maya’s office door and she looked at me from her laptop screen.
Wearing the biggest pair of blue light-blocking glasses I ever saw.
They took up half her face.
Anger rippled through me.
I wasn’t sure why.
Oh, maybe because I was supposed to be at least eight inches deep in Jezebel right now? I was supposed to be suckling on her massive tits while she clawed at my desk.
My dick didn’t just go down either. It had been woken up. It was still full, swollen, looking for a target…
“I was just bringing the stuff you wanted me to bring,” Maya said. “I didn’t know you had a woman in there.”
“That was a private meeting.”
“I’m sure of that.”
“Jezebel works in receiving for-”
Maya giggled and hurried to cover her mouth.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
“You said receiving… and she looked like she was in a position to, you know, receive…”
“I don’t know what you thought you saw,” I said. “But you better get that out of your head, Maya. If you can’t handle the job, you know where the door is. I expect everyone around here to act with professionalism. Some decency too. You just barged into my office like you owned it?”
“You told me-”
“I don’t give a shit what you think I told you,” I said. “You have no idea what I’m working on. Right now, everyone’s job is on the line. Got it?”
Maya swallowed hard. “Okay…”
“You tell anyone that and I’ll bring in the lawyers,” I said. “I don’t need some secretary spilling inside news all over the company or outside this building. Maybe this is just a job for you, Maya, but this is a career for a lot of people. Including me. Including Jezebel. She’s got a prominent position in a company we work closely with. Now I have to go rebuild that relationship and trust. Do you think I want to have to handle that right now?”
“Would you like me to call and apologize to her?” Maya offered. “I can smooth things over.”
I laughed. “You? Smooth things over? You’re lucky I let you work in an office with so many windows.”
“Oh.”
“You know what I mean, right?”
“Sure,” Maya said. “I’m stupid and clumsy. You’re surprised I haven’t broken a window yet.”
I nodded. “Well done.”
“I have the last of the Smith report for you,” Maya said. She slowly stood up. “I highlighted the parts you wanted…”
She lifted a folder off her desk and stared at me.
She wore some kind of sweater that looked like a piece of carpet with a hole in the middle for her head to poke through. She never wore makeup. She never wore perfume. She never wore any kind of clothing to show off anything she liked about herself.
That told me she either had zero confidence in herself, or she truly didn’t give a damn what anyone thought.
Why did that intrigue me?
Why not?
She was my secretary.
My last secretary took all of a week before trying to hit on me.
Casually touching my hand when I took something from her.
Always finding a way to be lingering in and near my office.
Wearing dresses that were so tight, I could see everything.
Put it this way… if she stood near one of the air conditioning vents, her nipples would make their presence known.
I missed my old secretary.
Too bad she moved to California, huh?
Because Maya was…
I moved toward her desk and took the folder.
I opened it and flipped through some of the pages and highlighted parts.
“One thing I noticed about them was that they-”
“Did I ask you to give an opinion on this?”
“No,” Maya said.
“Good. Do you remember where the good scotch is in my office?”
“Yes.”
“Go get me a glass,” I said. “I’ll flip through these notes.”
“Of course,” Maya said.
She took her big ass computer glasses off and hurried around her desk.
Jeans.
She wore jeans to the office.
I looked over my shoulder, watching her dance along the floor to get me a drink.
For some reason, I compared her to Jezebel.
Jezebel walked like a vixen. One leg in front of the other, knowing how to make her ass move, her hips swinging left to right.
But Maya…
Whatever.
This was the problem now.
I had been so revved up for Jezebel that my brain was wired to find something else to fuck.
Trust me, it wasn’t going to be Maya.
As I flipped through the papers in the folder, Maya’s screen lit up on her phone.
I was the boss.
This was all mine.
Everything in the office was mine too.
I looked down at her phone.
Someone named Cam had texted her.
“Can’t wait to see you soon. Only two hours to go! Would you prefer me to bring the roses to your door or surprise you throughout the night?”
I read the text out loud.
I shook my head.
What kind of moron would text a woman that?
“Loser,” I whispered.
Maya returned to the office with a glass of scotch for me.
I dropped the folder to the desk and turned around.
I took the glass from her and sipped it.
“You might want to go back and pour a drink for yourself.”
“Why?”
“We’ve got a long night ahead of us here.”
“What?”
“That report isn’t done yet,” I said. “I want you to go through some of the transcripts from the software meetings we’ve had.”
“There’s a lot…”
“Correct,” I said. “You didn’t have plans tonight, did you?”
Maya’s cheeks turned red. “Uh… well…”
“Nothing you can’t reschedule, right?”
“Right,” she said.
I nodded and lifted my glass. “Cheers, Maya. Why don’t you take a little bit to get settled and I’ll check on you later, okay?”
I could feel the anger coming off her.
And that was okay.
We now had something in common.
She cockblocked me…
So, I did it right back to her.
I kept a close eye on the time.
There was always work to do.
My mind was always on Mr. Pickle.
I talked to the guy at least daily. Most days we were talking three or four times. Whether it was something serious, like him buying the company, or just bullshit stuff. Talking about our favorite drinks. Our favorite women. Sharing wild stories. Both of us playing one another. He knew he had the checkbook, and I knew he loved to wave that thing around like a big dick.