by C. M. Steele
“It would have taken a while to set it up. That’s not something I could easily do in a day, and I couldn’t wait until after you left to get someone here. So I did what I thought was best. I could look for another assistant from another agency if you’d like.”
“No, that’s not necessary. I believe Jessica will do just fine.”
“Okay.”
I hung up on her because something about her frustrated tone irritated me, but at least my erection was gone. I looked at my reports that were due to the potential clients in London. My engineering company worked to get structures built or restored. In London, they were looking to build a few office buildings at the same time, and the projects had become a bidding war between three different companies, so I had to go meet with the clients in person so they could finalize their decision.
I wondered if I could take my assistant to London with me. I didn’t see why not, unless she had obligations here. I growled at the thought of her with a kid. She’d just graduated from college, so she probably didn’t have any, but then again, a lot of women had kids and still went to school. I sat there for a while, thinking about the possibility, until it became too much. I had to ask. Once I opened the door, she jumped in shock.
“I’m sorry, Jessica. I didn’t mean to scare you, but I wanted to ask. Do you have any obligations outside the office?”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you mean.”
“I mean, do you have a family to go home to? Kids? Boyfriend, husband?”
She raised her left hand, waving the bare hand at me. “No, and I don’t have a boyfriend or kids either. Why, are you planning to work me to the bone?”
I wanted her to work on my bone. Fuck, teenager brain striking. It had been a long time since I considered my cock a bone or boner. Laughing at myself, I forgot that she had asked me a question until I heard her typing again. Needing to stay on track, I decided to check on how her work was going. “So how’s it going?”
“Well, it’s only been about half an hour, so I just logged in to all the accounts from the sheet the IT team left. I’ll be starting on the inbox of emails sent to the assistant folder.”
“Fantastic, let me know if you have any questions. I’ll be in my office.”
I left her alone for a whole hour, which was a miracle. Normally I didn’t monitor my employees like that, but I couldn’t get enough of her.
“Hi, Jessica. How’s it going?”
“It’s fine. I just emailed you the two projects you left me,” she said, not looking up at me. She seemed too focused on her work.
Greedily, I wanted her attention, so I got a little over bossy. “You know, when I’m talking to you, you could look at me.”
“I’m sorry,” she said, looking up.
“I wanted to let you know that I have a meeting at one, so you can take your lunch then.” Again, I was not following protocol. Assistants were supposed to stay because of possible calls or actually join me in the meeting to take notes.
“That’ll work just fine.” She nodded at me. Her eyes weren’t meeting mine. Instead, she seemed to be focused on my neck.
I swallowed hard, wondering if she could see that cut on my neck from shaving this morning. “There’s a cafeteria on the first floor if you didn’t bring your lunch.” My conversation was so lame, but I couldn’t remember the last time I spoke to a woman I wanted.
“I brought my lunch, but thank you.” She blushed again.
So fucking pretty. I turned around without another word and went back into my office. I was pretty sure she thought I was nuts.
We didn’t see each other again until it was almost time to go.
By the end of the first day, I knew two things. First, I was in love with her. It seemed irrational and semi-insane, but given my family’s past, it was entirely possible. Second, I had to find a way to fight it. Maybe in a few days, it would pass. Then again, I’d never felt this way before, and I had no idea how to handle it.
~~~~~
I left the office confused as fuck and happy as hell I chose to walk to work this morning. The day had seemed to drag on, but I didn’t want it to end. I walked her to the parking garage for safety reasons. Or that was the reason I used to justify it to myself. It was a closed-off parking garage with full-time security personnel, so the likelihood of something happening was almost non-existent, but that didn’t stop me.
I was too nervous to say anything more than some small talk about the parking garage repaving. It was inane conversation that I wished I could take back, but it was better than fucking her against a concrete beam like I wanted to. Her car was parked in a dark corner. I wanted her to park somewhere else, but I’d have to have a sign made for her. She got into an older little coupe, and I reluctantly, regrettably walked away.
My house felt bigger than ever that night. I hadn’t felt so alone in so long that I didn’t know what to do about it. I was tempted to call someone to hang out, but it was a Monday night. The few friends I had worked the same schedule I did.
I couldn’t eat a damn thing and just thought about the way she crossed her legs several times during our meeting. I’d spent the meeting watching her hands as she took notes. It had been hard to concentrate, but thankfully I made it through. I used my father’s obsession to break the hold she had on me. His decision had dictated my entire life. That was, until Jessica entered. She pushed my resentment and pain away with just a glance.
I hit the shower because all I wanted to do was go to bed and get to work early tomorrow. The moment the spray hit my body, I gripped my cock. Before that first drop hit my skin, I’d had no intention of jerking off, but my mind went straight to imagining the straight-laced Jessica in my shower, her dark hair getting wet and trailing down her back. I groaned and stroked in slow motions. Rubbing my chest with my free hand, I thought about her breasts. I wondered if they were as big as her blouse had made them look. Even though she’d been buttoned up, I saw the way the fabric clung to her chest. Her outfit was professional, but she’d still looked like a swimsuit model.
Licking my lips, I envisioned taking hers into my mouth, sucking them while slipping my fingers into her heat, stroking her clit until she couldn’t take the pleasure anymore. Fuck, my pre-cum was sliding down my balls. My mind moved straight to her kneeling in front of me, licking them clean and swallowing my cum. I roared her name, coming onto my hand and the shower tiles. The woman had managed to fuck up my whole life in a day.
I was still horny when I jumped into bed. Grabbing some paper towels, I rubbed another one out. It wasn’t until I came again, to visions of her bouncing up and down on my cock, that I was able to pass out. Flashes of the past ran through my head. Memories haunted my existence. The dreams were harsh, but a wake-up call.
“What do you mean my father’s gone?” I asked the doctor, my heart cracking. I’d just lost my mother. When they’d called me back to the hospital, I hadn’t understood why.
“Mr. Hendricks, we’re sorry, but your father died last night,” he repeated.
“I don’t understand.” It couldn’t be.
The doctor said, “I’m truly sorry, Mr. Hendricks.”
I collapsed when he told me what had happened. I was going to be raising my little sister on my own. How was I supposed to break this news to her?
I woke up from that dream and made the decision that I couldn’t have Jessica… no matter what. She could destroy me and the man I’d become.
“Damn it, Nate. Don’t be like dad,” I chanted over and over.
Chapter 2
By the time I got home from my first day of work, I was a total mess. It was only day one, and despite the warning flags going off in my head, I was eager to know what his arms felt like wrapped around me. The man had wicked written all over his clean-shaven face. His head matched his face—perfectly smooth. When he smiled at me with his “lick me” dimples, I’d had to bite back a moan.
His body was another sexy beast of its own. Nathaniel Hendricks was over six
feet tall and muscular. He rocked a suit as though he was made for it, but he looked as though he could give an MMA fighter a run for his money in an octagon. I wondered if he took on amateur fights for fun. Even though the sport was brutal, I’d come to love it. My mother’s hospital stays left me with plenty of time to watch television, so I ended up watching MMA fights. It was crazy and exciting and took me away from my problems.
Nathaniel had all the makings of a professional weightlifter. He could probably lift me and slam me onto a bed without breathing heavily. Mewling, I rubbed my thighs together. I needed to get a grip.
I slipped off my shoes and unsnapped my bra before tossing it across the apartment. Marching into the kitchen, I decided to make something easy. Dinner was a pot of mac and cheese. I leaned against the fridge and thought about Nate Hendricks. At the agency, I overheard the receptionist talking about his proclivity with their temps. I thought it was just office gossip. The rumors about him seemed to be growing with every assistant, and when I first walked in, I’d thought they were true. Even when I met with the HR director she happened to mention his bad habit of losing assistants, but didn’t go into detail about it. By the end of the day, I wasn’t quite sure anymore. He didn’t give me that vibe. He almost looked intimidated by my presence, which was foolish because the man was a walking intimidation.
Once my food was ready, I sat down and flipped on the television with my extra cheesy bowl of mac. The first thing that popped on the screen was a commercial for steaks, and I almost tossed my food against the small television. I would really love a steak. Something rich, meaty, and so satisfying was a pipe dream at the moment. Mac and cheese was one of the few things I could afford. Being broke wasn’t the nicest thing, but I’d been through worse. Hell, it had been worse in the not-so-distant past.
Thinking back to those days was always painful. Life had been normal for a city girl like me. My mom and dad divorced when I was a kid, and he split before I was four. That didn’t hold my mother back though. She raised me with all the love she could give and worked to the bone to keep us off welfare. “Mary McNeil will never be on welfare,” she declared so many times. She would work three jobs if necessary to never accept a handout from anyone. I hadn’t thought it was the smartest thing at times, but her pride was all she had left. Well, and me of course, but she never made me feel like a burden. I missed her. Tears pooled in my eyes.
My mother passed her work ethic down to me. Working was something I had been great at before my mother got sick. Between going to college full-time and working forty hours a week, I still managed a 4.0. I graduated a week before we learned that the doctors had botched her surgery, and there was only a little time left before I lost her. How do you remove the wrong kidney? Time with her became my sole priority.
It took a few months after her death for me to come back to the world of the living. I was managing to survive on the savings we had left, but I’d needed a job ASAP. Trying to land a job had been harder than I thought though. So I lied on my application about my experience and landed a decent job, through the temp agency, that paid well over entry-level pay.
After learning who I was working for, I understood why they paid so much. The man was rumored to be a fucking manwhore with a thing for his assistants. I’d hated him for it, and I shouldn’t have, because he hadn’t done anything to me. But it was only the first day. Did he work his way under your guard, fuck you stupid, then toss you on your ass?
It didn’t matter either way. I was staying away from his swinging dick. And once the malpractice lawsuit paid out, I would quit. I just had to avoid looking at him and his sexiness. Then I could withstand his pull. Which would be hard.
~~~~~
When I got to the office that morning, Nate wasn’t there yet. My mind began to wonder where he was. Had he been delayed in traffic, or was he leaving his lover’s house after lazily making love to her? That train of thought bothered me. I started typing hard, my nails crashing down on the keyboard, clickity-clacking with my frustration. Why the fuck was I concerned about his love life? Why was I freaking jealous?
I was already done with most of the work that I needed to do for the day, and I needed him to assign me another task or I was going to bust out a game of Candy Crush on my phone. He walked into the office an hour late and didn’t look too happy to be there. He looked as if someone had run over his dog. I didn’t want to say anything, but I was really concerned.
“Is everything all right, sir?” I asked.
He gave me a quick once-over, then he snarled, “It’s Nathaniel or Nate. Everything is as fine as it can be. My workout lasted longer than it should have.”
He stormed into his office, and I wondered if my question had been out of line. Shaking my head, I went back to work. It was looking more like his assistants had quit because he was an asshole than a playboy. I’d be on that boat as well. Any day now, I would be receiving my settlement. Five million dollars didn’t bring my mother back, but it would give me what I needed to start over and determine what I wanted in life.
Two hours and ten emails later, he came out of the office with his coat on. “Jessica, I have a lunch appointment with my lawyer. I’ll be back later. If you need me, call me, okay?” The attitude was missing from his voice, and that completely changed the atmosphere in the room.
“Okay, Mr.… I mean, Nate.”
He smiled at me before he walked out. And just like that, I was fascinated with him all over again.
Since the first moment we met, an attraction had been there between us. I didn’t want it to be there, but it was. Running my hands all over his face and chest seemed to pop into my head every few minutes. I tried to focus on my work and his reputation, but neither seemed to ease the ache or gross me out enough to stay away from him. Thoughts of letting him take my virginity just to get rid of it were becoming more and more prevalent. He had sex god written all over that chiseled face, so at least with him, my first time would be awesome.
Chapter 3
I got to the gym earlier than normal because I hated myself for wanting to see her as soon as I woke up. That dream should have been enough to deter me. Over the years, sexual lust had never been able to get past the pain of that day.
The gym was empty, so I put on my headphones and began my cardio. I ran six miles on the treadmill. That was longer than normal, but she seemed to break through all my norms. After my grueling workout, she popped back into my head. I wanted to rush into work and fuck her into my desk. The thoughts of a life with her were drumming through my head, but I couldn’t be my father, so I had to back away. Since I couldn’t shake those feelings, I added another cardio session to punish myself.
The punishment did nothing to stop the need. All I managed to do was build up an appetite and create a backlog of work to return to.
Thankfully she’d decided to dress a little more conservatively today. I didn’t know what I’d do if she dressed like someone her age. If she wore her suit jacket unbuttoned, I’d probably come in my pants. I hadn’t meant to snap at her when I came in, but Jessica’s concern for my emotions hit me right in my gut. I wanted her more than I could ever imagine. That wasn’t a good thing. It could never be a good thing.
I managed to get through the day until it was time for my business lunch with my lawyer. The entire way to the meeting, I thought about how I should have invited Jessica. She could have learned that the stories floating around the office were lies.
But Jessica stayed at the office to wait for a specific call I needed, which meant she’d have to have lunch at her desk. I wasn’t crazy about that idea. They said eating at the desk didn’t give a worker the reprieve they needed and was ultimately bad for the company. But since I knew she didn’t have money to go out, I didn’t pitch a fit.
My lawyer and I talked about the rumors and damage to my reputation. After my lawyer told me his people couldn’t narrow down the blogger’s location, I called an end to the meeting. It wasn’t productive, which meant the lunch wa
s a total waste of my time. Plus, I wanted to see her.
It was about one in the afternoon, and I was about to leave the restaurant, when I called the office. “Jess, this is Nate. How’s it going?”
“It’s going okay. I received a call from Mr. Delany’s assistant. She said he’s no longer interested and is going with another company.”
“Damn it,” I snapped. Moriarty was probably undercutting me again, or the rumors were starting to spread.
“I’m sorry. I hate to be the bearer of bad news.”
I didn’t mean for her to feel responsible. It wasn’t her issue. “It’s not your fault. I actually called to see if you ate yet.”
“No, I was going to wait until you got back,” she said softly. I wondered if it was because she had the same old thing and she wasn’t interested in eating it.
“Did you want something to eat from here? I know you’re busy, but you’ve got to eat,” I reminded her. I was about to leave for almost a week, and I knew I’d be worried about her. I’d tell finance to process her check early. Everyone got paid on Monday, but since she was new, she’d normally have to wait until the following pay period. Rushing it wasn’t a big deal to me though.
“Um. No, that’s okay. I brought my lunch.”
Yeah, I’d seen that plain ham-and-cheese sandwich. It was the same thing she’d had the day before. I knew she was poor, but damn, she was going to starve if she didn’t get a paycheck soon. I hadn’t seen a piece of fruit or even a snack to go with the sandwich. I’d been there before, so I knew what it was like. She was going to fight me on this, but there was no way I’d let her starve.
“So a cheeseburger and fries cool?” I knew, from the ham sandwiches, that she ate meat, so a burger was the safest choice.
“I brought my lunch.”
I knew it; she’d put up a fight, but I wasn’t going to let her win.
“Save it for later. I asked you if you want a burger,” I stated authoritatively. If she tried to fight me again, I might have to spank her pretty ass. Damn, that thought was tempting.