by K. Anderson
In the end, she did put the same skirt on, with a different pair of tights and shoes, and a different blouse, but with the same jacket, because she really did only have one. Perhaps if she changed the blouse every day, no one would notice. That was what she hoped anyway. Then, at the end of the month, when she received her first pay check, she could go out and buy herself another suit.
Her mother told her not to worry and that nobody would be bothered about her clothes, then gave her a kiss on the cheek and dispatched her off.
She took the car in this time, seeing as she knew where she was going and public transport was just generally a nightmare. There was also an underground parking lot at the offices, so it would be easy to find somewhere to park.
She made sure to arrive in plenty of time, and was ten minutes early into the actual offices themselves.
She made herself known to the receptionist and was told to just head on up.
As the elevator doors pinged open on the twenty second floor, Brendan Briar was stood there waiting for her in a pristine, crisp blue suit and a smile on his face.
“Alexis…” He leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek, dropping some of the formalities he had adopted during their interview. “So glad you could join us.”
“I’m glad to be here, s-sir,” she mumbled, unsure of actually what to call him now she was working for him.
“Oh please, none of that sir stuff. Brendan will be fine. Come with me, please…” He set off walking at a brisk pace, in the opposite direction to the large open spaced office she had gone through to get to his office on the day of her interview.
This time, they went right, and the corridor emerged out into another almost identical office space on the other side of the elevators.
He strode over to a desk near the window and had a word with the man sitting there, who got up and came over, a smile on his face as he offered out his hand to Alexis.
“Good morning. My name’s Jack, I’m the man in charge around here.”
“Nice to meet you, Jack.” She shook his hand. He seemed like a decent enough guy.
“You’ll be alright now, Alexis,” Brendan assured her. “I’ve got to shoot off. Some business to attend to. But I’ll leave you in Jack’s capable hands and I’m sure we’ll see each other real soon.” He gave her a smile and a squeeze on the shoulder then dashed off again before Alexis could really say goodbye.
She turned to Jack and put on her best attentive expression as he began to explain everything to her.
He gave her a full guided tour of the office, introducing her to absolutely everyone who worked there. With a staff of thirty-two, that in itself was quite a daunting experience and she knew there was no way she was going to remember everyone’s names. She simply tried her best to remember the ones who were working in her specific section of the office, which Jack had already told her would be right there next to his desk by the window, where there was an empty desk already waiting for her.
After the introductions, she was shown where the bathrooms were, where the kitchen was and how to work the coffee machine; the various drinks machines dotted around, the photocopier, the fax machine, the printer. Then she was shown to her desk and Jack set her up on the computer system, giving her a username and password and showing her how to login, check business e-mails and reply to them and how to operate the system in general.
All of that took up the majority of the morning, and they just had time to fill out the forms for HR with her bank details so that she could get paid before it was lunchtime.
Some people went to get the food they had brought with them from the kitchen, and heated it up in the microwave or took sandwiches back to their desks to eat while they chatted to one another or checked Facebook.
Others went out and left the office for a bit of fresh air, to grab some lunch from sandwich bars or cafes across the street. That was exactly what Alexis did, seeing as she hadn’t thought to bring her own lunch, although she certainly would from now on considering how expensive New York was. She wanted to try and save as much money as possible, not spend all her wages on food.
After lunch came the actual work that she’d been hired to do and now that she was comfortable enough with the computer and the office space, Jack wheeled over his chair and explained what she would be doing for the company. It was simple enough and nothing that she hadn’t already been prepared for by her degree, so she cracked on with it and the rest of the afternoon soon past.
She had a few casual conversations with the people sat closest to her but mostly she kept herself to herself and just go on with her work. She didn’t want to earn a reputation for slacking or gossiping on her first day, especially as her desk was situated so close to Jack’s. She wanted to impress him. No doubt he would be reporting back to Bradley and Brendan on her progress.
Of course, her mother wanted to hear all about it when she got back home later that night, and they swapped stories about their days. Thankfully, Maria had come in as arranged and cooked her lunch, as well as spent a little bit of time with her in the afternoon, which Alexis was grateful for.
The next day was much the same as the first, only this time she remembered to take her own sandwiches in with her for lunch, and she spent the entire day focusing on her work rather than needing the morning to get things set up.
The rest of the week passed by quickly and easily. Alexis found the work stimulating, challenging at times, but mostly simple and within her grasp of understanding. She felt as though she was being given fairly simplistic tasks to start off with, to ease her into the work environment.
She didn’t particularly make friends with anyone, although she chatted with people pleasantly enough, but she spent most of her spare time at work wondering where Brendan and Bradley were, and when she would see them again.
For the next two weeks, she worked solidly, five days a week, eight and sometimes nine or ten hours per day, and she didn’t once see either of the brothers. She understood that they were very busy and probably had other businesses to take care of as well as this one, but she couldn’t help but think of them, her mind occasionally wandering to daydream about their handsome features or perfect bodies, and hoping they would come back into the offices again sometime soon.
It seemed she wasn’t alone in her fascination and slight crush on the brothers. The other girls in the office often talked about them, and giggled and turned red whenever their names were mentioned. It was fairly obvious that they were well liked and well fancied by at least the female population of the office and one or two of the males too, and it appeared that Bradley in particular had something of a reputation.
“Apparently he once slept with three women in one day.”
“I heard it was four.”
“I heard it was three women and one man.”
“No way! He’s not into men.”
“He likes his women petite and blonde too. They have to be petite and blonde.”
“I heard he’s slept with over a hundred girls.”
“It’s probably more than that. I think so anyway.”
“Yeah, he’s a total womanizer.”
The whispers and the rumors and the gossip were constantly flying around the office on break times and at lunch, particularly where Bradley was concerned. Alexis never joined in, never offered an opinion. She just stayed silent and listened, but she took it all on board, processed it all. It made her realize that the incident at her interview was no trick. He really had wanted her to get down on her knees for him.
Alexis kept her head down and got on with her work, focusing on delivering good results and impressing Jack, her immediate boss, who seemed pleased with everything she was offering up so far, and told her at the end of her first two weeks that she was settling in very well and would make a valuable asset to the team.
Her mother frequently asked her how her days at work had gone and when she returned home they often sat and talked together in the quiet darkness of the bedroom while Alexis encourage
d her to eat.
It wasn’t until her third week in the office that she encountered either of the Briar brothers again.
She was sat at her desk minding her own business when she felt a heavy hand on her shoulder and a familiar scent wafting up her nostrils.
She gasped slightly and spun around to find Bradley Briar standing right beside her.
He smirked and walked around the side of her, perching his butt on the edge of her desk as he glanced her up and down, his eyes lingering on her chest before looking back up at her eyes again, meeting them with his own dashing, piercing blue.
“How are you?” he asked quietly, shuffling a little closer and keeping his voice down as though he didn’t want the others in the office to hear.
“Really well. Th-thank you,” she answered, fumbling slightly over her words. She hadn’t been expecting to see him and now she didn’t quite know what to say, or how to react, remembering what had happened between them the last time they’d met. She was fairly sure that her cheeks had turned bright red too.
“Very good, very good. I’ll be around for a week or two now so…it’ll be nice to have a catch up,” he smiled and reached out to push a strand of hair off her face that had fallen down.
He was very forward, once again making it pretty obvious what his intentions were and that he was into her, and once again, Alexis was flattered and nearly knocked off her feet, her heart fluttering and her stomach turning over and twisting up into knots. Gosh, he was gorgeous. She had quite the crush on him by this point and, by the sounds of things so did most of the people in the office.
“Uh…y-yes, that’d be…nice,” she agreed with a little nod and a smile.
“I hear you’ve been settling in really well.”
“I’d like to think so, yes,” she answered, growing in confidence slightly as they began to talk about work.
“I’ve only heard good report back from Jack so…I definitely think we made the right decision offering you a place here.”
“I’ve a lot more to give too,” she added, then bit her bottom lip slightly as she suddenly realized the potential double implications of her words.
Bradley picked up on it too. Of course he did.
His smile widened and he played with his tie a little, loosening it off. “I’m sure you have, sugar, I’m sure you have…”
Alexis blushed some more and looked at her computer screen instead of him, half hoping he would leave her alone so she could just die of embarrassment in peace, and half hoping he would carry on.
In what she came to realize was typical Bradley Briar style, he carried on, not phased at all by anything she’d said or how she’d reacted to him. In fact, quite the opposite. He was probably encouraged by her blushes, her awkward responses and her stammering, easily being able to tell that she was into him.
“About that catch up,” he continued. “It’s lunchtime in half an hour. How about you take it with me?”
It was more of a demand than a question. She got the impression he wasn’t used to having any kind of request refused.
“I…uh…”
Now she was nervous. Was it appropriate for them to go to lunch together? Where would it lead? What did he want from her? And more to the point, how far was she willing to go with him? She found her eyes roaming up and down his body again without even realizing she was doing so.
“I absolutely insist,” he added.
“Well…”
“In fact, I order you to. And as I’m your boss, you can’t actually refuse me. Unless you want to get fired.” He said it all with a jovial smile and a sparkle in his eye, of course, and she knew he wouldn’t actually fire her just for not going to lunch with him. There was something about the way he said ‘order’ though, and just the very idea of Bradley Briar ordering her around. It sent a shiver through her spine and once again she felt her heart fluttering.
She giggled slightly and looked up at him, smiling. “In that case, I suppose that’s a yes.”
“Good girl.”
There was something about the way he said that too. It was as though he knew exactly what he was doing and how to push all of her buttons.
She found herself pretty unable to concentrate after he sauntered off with a swagger, leaving her to get on with her work for the next half an hour. All she could think about was her lunch date with Bradley. Where would he take her? What would they talk about? Would he stare at her breasts the whole time or actually manage to look at her face occasionally? Would he try and make a move on her?
She tried to decide whether she wanted him to or not and how she would react if he did, but by the time he came to collect her she was no closer to figuring things out, although when she saw him again and got that now familiar flutter in her chest, she began to think that she would most probably do anything he wanted at this point.
Chapter Six
Lunch wasn’t as awkward or as strange as she might have expected. Once Bradley got her out of the office, his personality seemed to shift slightly, and he dropped some of his bravado and womanizer act that she began to wonder whether it was put on for the others in the office, who were very obviously listening in and watching every move he made.
He walked easily by her side and led her through the streets, glancing across at her and giving her an easy, relaxed smile.
“Sorry for flirting with you so much,” he chuckled, shrugging his shoulders. “I can’t help it most of the time. Hope I didn’t make you too uncomfortable.”
It seemed pretty genuine, and it was a relief to hear him admit that he had actually been flirting. There was a point where she was starting to think she was just crazy and imagining that he was interested in her.
“Nothing wrong with flirting,” she replied, giving him the same small smile he was giving her. “Harmless fun.”
Was that what it was? She was trying to work out how serious he was with it all.
“Yeah, it can be,” he answered cryptically. “Well, y’know, there’s flirting and there’s flirting.”
She wasn’t exactly sure what he meant by that, so she just nodded, and thankfully he carried on and elaborated somewhat.
“I mean, I flirt with everyone. And sometimes it’s, like you said, just harmless fun. I don’t mean anything by it and I don’t necessarily want it to go anywhere. But with other people, I flirt and I actually mean it, and I actually want them to respond and flirt back and for something more to happen, y’know?”
She nodded, then bit her lip slightly as she worked up the courage to ask the next question, finally managing to blurt it out after they’d walked in silence for a couple of minutes.
“And which flirting were you doing with me, Bradley?”
He smirked and put his hands in his pockets, then actually looked quite coy for a moment as he glanced down at his feet and shrugged his shoulders.
“Well, you’re coming for lunch with me, aren’t you?”
“I thought you’d ask all the girls for lunch.”
“Nah…only the pretty ones.”
“Ah, so it’s all about the looks then, is it?” She threw him a smirk, her confidence picking up again now she knew that it was the second type of flirting he’d been doing with her. “Personality doesn’t enter into it?”
“No, no, I mean, it does…of course it does,” he chuckled, backtracking and biting his lip slightly, still with that coy expression on his face that made his handsome features even more adorable. “But looks are what you see first, isn’t it? I mean, unless you’re blind. Which I’m obviously not. And then you get to know the personalities later once you’ve decided you like the look of them.”
“That’s how you work it, is it?” She smiled at him.
“Pretty much. Why? How do you work it? Pick guys blindfolded or something? Or do you only go for blind guys in the first place?”
She could tell he was teasing him, of course, but she didn’t have much time for a comeback before they’d arrived at the place where Bradley was planning to t
ake her for lunch.
It was a small but upmarket Italian place, that served a mixture of light pastas, small lunches and sandwiches, and full blown evening meals with pizzas etc.
“Are you hungry?” He asked her as he led her inside and got them both a table in the window where they could sit and watch the world go by.
“Mm, not massively. I’ve actually brought my own sandwiches so…”
“You bring your own sandwiches to work?” He chuckled and pulled out a chair for her, acting like a true gentleman.
She blushed and sat down, taking off her coat. “Well yeah, it’s cheaper than eating out every day. Some of us aren’t billionaires like you, y’know.”
“Well, you can take home your sandwiches today and have them later. Pick anything you like off here.” He handed her the menu. “And I’m paying, obviously.”
“Thank you.” She took the menu and opened it up, glancing through it at the choices as a waitress came over and asked them what they wanted to drink, obviously recognizing Bradley.
“How are you?” She smiled at him and tilted her head to one side slightly, brushing some hair back and batting her eyelashes at him. “Nice to see you again.”
Alexis raised her eyebrow a little as she watched the interchange between them, wondering exactly how well Bradley knew the girl.
“And you,” he smiled back charmingly. “I’ll take a glass of sparkling mineral water and…Alexis?”
“I’ll have the same.”
The waitress scribbled it down then walked off, leaving them to it.
“You know her then?” Alexis asked.
“Yeah, I’m a regular here. Not been for a while though.”
“She seems to like you. A lot.”
“Are you jealous?” Bradley smirked, his eyebrow twitching up.
“Ha, no. Why would I be?”