“Did I tell you that I liked that skirt?” Jason said as he snuck up behind me while I was getting coffee late in the afternoon.
His hand gently touched my exposed inner thigh near the hem of my skirt. The touch sent a shiver through my body, and I stayed in that position to see where else his fingers might be heading.
“You are getting pretty damn bold,” I whispered.
“No, everyone’s working hard, they won’t see,” he said as he turned and looked behind him to watch out while he let his fingers slide up and down my inner thigh.
“You know if someone comes around that corner, it’s going to be too late. They are going to see you,” I teased.
“Yep.” He continued playing with my thigh and then quickly stood up as Kevin walked in the room. I grabbed my coffee, nodded at Kevin, and then hurried back to my desk. I couldn’t keep from laughing as I waited for Jason to return from the break room.
Jason was in there with Kevin for a long time before he finally came back to his office. He didn’t say anything to me, and instead went straight to his desk and sent me an instant message.
IM from Jason: Whoops ☺
IM from Anna: Oh my gosh. That’s so embarrassing.
IM from Jason: I guess I should try harder to behave myself.
IM from Anna: I guess I could wear a longer shirt. ;)
IM from Jason: Don’t you dare.
We played around over instant messenger for a little bit, but eventually, we both went back to work. Jason was still really busy with his job, and I didn’t want to totally distract him from the things he needed to do.
Throughout the day, I worked my ass off with hardly a break as I tried to leave Jason alone and get my own work done. Jason was on a lot of phone calls, and by the time six o’clock rolled around, he and Kevin had to go to a business dinner, and I hadn’t realized it was an hour past when I normally left work.
“Are you staying all night?” Jason teased as he and Kevin waited for me by the elevator.
“No, I’m coming. Sorry, I was trying to finish something up.”
I hurried over to the elevator and made a point to stand on the opposite side from Jason. I didn’t make eye contact with either of them and instead just stood there and looked at my phone. When the elevator finally opened, I sent a text message to Lilli and then hurried off to my car.
“See you tomorrow,” Jason said.
“Yep, see you both tomorrow.”
***
Working and flirting with Jason was the perfect combination for me. I was driven over the next several weeks and worked hard to show that I could manage the flirting and working that we had going on. It was exciting to come to work, and I had more energy than I’d had the first month of working, that was for sure.
Every morning, I put on a sexy business outfit, did my hair and makeup and tried to think of a new way I could flirt with Jason. We still hadn’t managed to find time for our official date, but that didn’t matter all that much. I knew he was busy with Clyde on the weekends, and work had been crazy busy as well.
He had me going through each of the divisions of my father’s company and pulling financial reports for him. When I happened to mention that to my father, I noticed he looked a little worried, but surprisingly, he let it go without giving me a half-hour long sermon.
Kevin even managed to give me a compliment on how hard I was working and the awesome work I was getting done. It was exciting to get some validation from someone other than Jason.
I could see how working and dating your boss wouldn’t work for some people, but it was working fabulously for me. We had a chance to talk and hang out with each other every day, and even though we were busy, we still found a hidden moment every now and then for a sexy kiss in the corner of his office or some other cool place.
By the end of the month, I was working late into the evening on a Friday and so were several other people in the office. We all had our own little projects we were trying to finish up before heading home for the weekend. No one was particularly chatty as we had our heads in our computers and were typing away.
Fred and Mary from our accounting department were still in their offices working on something for Jason. Kevin and Jason were huddled in the big conference room with many of the reports I’d made for them over the last two months. Even Zelda was still at her desk trying to finish up a project.
By ten o’clock, I could hardly keep my eyes opened as I emailed off my finished report and looked up to see that Zelda had gone home. I wandered down the hallway and noticed the whole accounting team was gone as well. Then I went down the opposite side of the hallway and saw that only Kevin and Jason were left in the building.
I stood outside of the conference room for a minute as I listened to the two men arguing about something. I couldn’t make out what they were saying from there, though, so I moved down to the office next to the conference room. I’d been in there visiting one afternoon and remembered you could hear through the vent rather easily.
“It’s not working, Jason. We are going to have to piece the company out,” Kevin said with a little bit of exasperation in his voice.
“Come on, Kevin. You are being dramatic. They still have money in reserve and are still the best at bidding on commercial projects. Let’s put a few million into them before we destroy the company.”
“That’s ridiculous, and you know it. This is your cock talking and not your mind. I don’t care if you’re boning his daughter. This company needs to be dismantled before we lose everything.”
Jason was quiet, and I stood near the vent waiting for him to defend my father and his company. There was no way Jason was going to destroy everything my father had worked so hard for. I knew him. I knew Jason just wouldn’t do that. He’d promised my father they were going to help them get back on their feet. That was the whole reason for this deal.
“Okay, let’s start putting together the sell-off documents. We need to get some good bids, though. I can’t go to Edward without having some offers on the table.”
“This is for the best,” Kevin said.
“Yeah, I know,” Jason replied.
My pulse was throbbing so loudly in my head that I could hardly stand up. I hurried to my desk, grabbed my purse, and quickly ran to the elevator just as I heard Jason and Kevin coming out of their meeting.
I didn’t look over at them; instead, I jumped into the elevator the second it opened. I closed my eyes and hoped they hadn’t seen me, but I knew they had.
“Goodnight, Anna,” Jason said as he held the door open with his hand.
“Yeah, goodnight,” I said with disgust in my voice and pushed the button to close the elevator door.
I couldn’t even stand to look at the man after hearing what I had just heard. He was going to sell off my father’s company. After everything that had happened between the two of us, I was in shock at how willing he was to destroy my family. This was going to devastate my father. It was going to kill him, I just knew it.
Chapter 11
Jason
“Is this what you meant when you said you had everything under control?” Kevin asked.
“What? It’s fine. She was probably just tired.” Even I didn’t believe a damn word I was saying. Anna must have overheard us talking. She was clearly upset, and I needed to make sure she wasn’t going to run off and tell her father what she had heard.
“Yeah, damage control might be nice,” Kevin said as I looked at him and then at the stairwell. “We can’t afford to have Edward and Marcus flipping out on us before we’ve even put together a good deal for them to look at. Go,” he said and waved me off so I could catch up to Anna.
I rushed down the stairs and out into the parking lot just as she was pulling out of her spot. I hurried around to the front of the car and gently tapped on the hood before walking to her window when she stopped.
Her cute lips were pressed together roughly, and she wouldn’t even look me in the eyes. My heart sunk at the realizatio
n that she was genuinely angry with me. It was a new thing for the two of us, and I wasn’t prepared to handle it just yet.
“Anna, can we talk?”
“I have to go,” she said without looking up at me, but I thought I could see tears rolling down her face.
“Did you overhear Kevin and me talking? I can explain.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
She rolled her window up and pulled away from me. Kevin was walking up to me as she left the parking lot. I shook my head in disappointment.
Anna hadn’t even given me a chance to explain what she had heard. I really wouldn’t be recommending breaking up her father’s company if it wasn’t the best possible option. Plus, just because the company got sold off wouldn’t mean that anyone would lose their job at all. Many times when new owners bought part of a company, they would then keep the staff on to run it – sometimes even paying more and providing better benefits because the new owners were typically part of huge corporations.
“So yeah, this was why I said not to sleep with her,” Kevin said almost under his breath. “You have gotten us into a big mess here. If she gets pissed, she could file a lawsuit or something against us because you’re her boss. Damn, Jason, this is a mess.”
“I didn’t sleep with her, she’s a virgin,” I said and then winced at the information I’d just willingly given to Kevin.
“Wow, okay, so you definitely need to not sleep with her. But what’s all this touchy-feely shit that’s been going on in the office? I thought for sure you two were sleeping together.”
“No. We are just flirting and having fun. I promised to take her on a date before I slept with her.”
“Jason, what the hell is going on? This is exactly the mess I didn’t want to happen.”
“I’ll take care of it. I’ll talk to her. Don’t worry. She probably doesn’t understand how this could all end up working out really well for her father. I mean he will end up stinking rich after we sell off the company. He’s got to be thinking about retirement soon.”
Kevin pinched the bridge of his nose as he shook his head. This was what he did when he got anxious. Kevin wasn’t really the yelling type of guy, and his sensibilities always helped us in our business dealings.
“Apologize to her, talk to her, and sleep with her if you have to,” he said as my mouth literally dropped open. “We can’t have this thing going off the rails, and if she will listen to you and keep quiet, that’s a good thing. However you need to do that, just do it.”
The gravity of what he was saying was huge. Kevin had basically just said he didn’t care if I slept with Anna or not and that keeping our business deal was so important he was fine with it all. I wasn’t about to manipulate Anna or pretend that we were something more than we were, but I did care for her, and I hated that she was upset.
“I’m going to get in touch with her, and we will talk. I promise. And I’ll call you to let you know what’s going on.”
“Goddamn, Jason. I think I’m getting an ulcer from all this stress,” Kevin said as he grabbed onto his stomach. “How about we take a break on the big deals for a few months after this one is figured out.”
“Sure thing.”
“I’ll talk to you later.”
“Yep, and don’t worry so much. Everything is going to be just fine.”
The problem was, I was just as worried as Kevin. It was entirely possible that Anna was on her way straight over to her father to tell him exactly what she had heard. I dialed her phone as I climbed into my car, but it went straight to voicemail.
“Hey, Anna, can you give me a callback? I’d really like to explain this business stuff to you so you’re not so worried.”
I had to get home to Clyde or I would have driven over to Anna’s apartment to see if she was there. At least I would know if she was at her father’s house when I got to mine, even if there was nothing I could do about it.
Sure enough, as I pulled into my driveway, I saw Anna’s car in her parents’ driveway. My stomach dropped to the ground over what she was telling her father and how he might react. I liked Edward; I wouldn’t wish anything bad to happen to him, and I genuinely believed he could have a heart attack from the stress of hearing that the company was going to be sold.
If I was the one to tell him, I could explain things better. If we had some offers for the different parts of the company, we would have a clearer picture of how things would work after the sale. Right now, this was all just an idea. We didn’t have anything officially up for sale, and we didn’t have any offers so it would be extremely premature to tell Edward about the plan. Telling him right now would only cause enormous distress with no possible positive outcome.
I stood in the driveway contemplating if I should go knock on Anna’s family’s door. It was much too late just to be randomly knocking on my neighbor’s door, though. Instead, I decided to send Anna a text, more of a plea than anything else.
JASON: Anna, please don’t tell your father anything yet. Trust me, I have a plan, and I want to explain it to you. Please, just don’t tell him tonight. Give me a chance to explain.
Although my phone registered that the text was delivered and then shortly after it was read, Anna did not respond. I stayed in the driveway for five minutes as I looked up at her window and then at all the other windows to see if she was looking at me. I couldn’t see her and finally relegated myself to going home.
Clyde was already in bed and asleep, and Rosie was in her room. I felt horrible that I’d kept her away from her family again; I’d been working so much lately that I’d had to rely on her much more than I was used to. At least once a week over the last two months, Rosie had spent the night at my house in the spare room. Normally she only had to stay over when I was traveling or closing a big deal, not after the deal had closed.
But everything about this Cook, Sparser, and Conner deal was weird. Like where was Morgan Sparser at? That question had bugged me from the second we started looking into the company. And why was Edward Cook’s name the first on the list for the company name? Every time I’d ventured to ask those questions, I got weird roundabout answers that satisfied me for the moment but left me even more confused later.
I lay awake much of the night thinking about this deal and how it had felt different from the very beginning. I shouldn’t have agreed to talk with Edward and give him advice on his company so many years before. It was my policy not to give friends advice, and I should have let that policy include not giving neighbors advice.
I crawled out of bed when my alarm went off at six o’clock with only a few hours of sleep. I showered and made my way back to work. Anna’s car was still at her parents’ house, but that wasn’t surprising since it had been nearly midnight when I got home, and I left before sunrise.
When she got to work, we could talk things out. I was convinced that being face to face with each other was all she needed to see where I was coming from and what was really going on. Her father would be able to see it as well, but only if I could present it to him the proper way. The presentation was 3/4th of anyone accepting a proposal. They got a good feeling about what was being said right away and would make up their minds before they truly understood the deal.
“Everything okay?” Zelda asked as I walked onto the floor.
“Yep,” I said very unconvincingly.
I moved slowly to my office and put my things down before going straight to the coffee machine. There was no way I was making it through that day without lots of coffee. As I stood staring off into space and waiting for the coffee to brew, I heard a woman’s high heels leaving the elevator.
I hurried to look around the corner and was disappointed to find that it was just Mary from accounting. It wasn’t even seven o’clock, so there was no reason for Anna to show up to work that early. And she especially wasn’t going to be early after getting so upset with me and Kevin the night before.
I muddled through my morning, drank my coffee, ate some donuts and was ready for a nap
by nine o’clock. I was also ready for Anna to come in and was getting pretty damn worried about her not being there.
My phone buzzed...
It was Zelda. “Hey, just wanted you to know Anna called and said she wouldn’t be in today. She’s not feeling well. Do you want me to see if a temp can come help out?”
“No, it’s fine. Thanks for letting me know.”
I went straight to Kevin’s office to tell him what was happening. This wasn’t good. It wasn’t good at all.
“She called in sick today, and her car was at her father’s place last night. She’s not answering my calls.”
He went to his signature move of pinching the bridge of his nose as he tried to figure out what would be the best approach. I grabbed a seat next to his desk and sat there waiting while we tried to figure this whole thing out.
“I’ll go talk to them,” Kevin said reluctantly as he breathed out a huge exhale. “This isn’t going to be comfortable, though, and you’re going to owe me big time.”
“You mean beyond the dozen or so past things I already owe you for?” I laughed and tried to get Kevin to chuckle, but he definitely wasn’t seeing the humor in the situation.
“Maybe we should give her, I mean them, some space? If they haven’t shown up here yelling and screaming at us, maybe she didn’t tell him yet. Maybe she’s just thinking things through, or perhaps she really is sick?”
Kevin just laughed at me without even looking up. He was just as tired as I was, and neither of us was thinking straight. “Let me think for a little bit, and maybe I’ll try calling Anna.”
“Okay, I’m going to have to take a nap or head out early today. I really didn’t sleep at all.”
“We can wrap things up early if needed. I’ll get some feelers out for the sale, and then we will go from there.”
As I walked back to my office, a gloom had settled in the hallway. Without Anna there, it wasn’t as bright and happy in the office. There was nothing especially different, except that Anna’s smiling face wasn’t greeting me as I approached my office door.
The Baby Package Page 73