Hard Pressed: A Billionaire in Disguise Romance

by Vivien Vale

  Wes

  I have a great weekend. I get to relax for a change. I think Kylie has something to do with that. There’s nothing as good as great sex to get you to relax.

  When I walk through the office doors on Monday morning, I’m in a good mood. My job is going well – Kylie’s project is on track despite the hiccup with Leon – and things between the two of us are great on a personal level. I like being with her. She’s easy to talk to, and she doesn’t expect anything more than what we’re doing. That’s rare for a woman.

  When I reach my office, Harold is waiting for me with his hands in his pockets. He rocks back and forth on the balls of his feet, looking at the art on the wall outside my door as if he’s been waiting for a while.

  “Harold, morning,” I say and smile holding out my hand. He shakes my hand, but he doesn’t return the smile.

  “We need to see you in the boardroom,” Harold says. He looks serious, and my good mood wavers a little.

  “Is everything alright?” I ask.

  “Make sure you put down your things and get there,” Harold says before he walks away. My stomach turns a little. I have no idea what’s going on. I unlock my office and put down my briefcase and coat before I head toward the boardroom. I’ve never been summoned this way, and I don’t know what to expect.

  I stop at the men’s room and splash cold water on my face. I pat my face and hands dry with a paper towel and look at myself in the mirror. I look immaculate in a black suit with a crisp white shirt. I should be invincible. I’m on top of the world. I just don’t feel like it right now.

  Does this have to do with Kylie and our evening in the conference room on Friday? It can’t be. No one could know about that – I made sure we were alone. I double checked when I left, and I know Kylie took care of everything else.

  I am worried about nothing, I tell myself. I take a deep breath and walk to the boardroom. I don’t want to leave them waiting. Harold was serious about seeing me. When I reach the door, I take a deep breath and steady myself before walking in. I worked on an alibi for Friday night. I decided to tell anyone that asked that I spent the night at a cigar bar on the other side of town. I know that Kylie has an alibi too, I texted her, but she would do something like that, anyway.

  She’s a smart woman.

  I still don’t think this has anything to do with what happened on Friday, but I am on my guard, and I will only relax afterward, the way I did after what happened to Leon.

  I reach for the door handle and push into the boardroom.

  They’re all there. All board members are seated around the table, and they all look as solemn as Harold did. I smile, greeting them, trying to look more confident than I feel.

  “Take a seat, Wesley,” Richman says to me.

  I sit down and look at the board members one by one. They’re all serious when I look at them, making eye contact only briefly before looking down at the table or up at the ceiling or anywhere they can without making eye contact with me. It makes me feel sick to my stomach. Something is wrong.

  “What’s going on?” I ask.

  Richman takes a deep breath. “I was hoping that you can tell us, Wesley. I thought this business about your alleged affair is over, but apparently, there’s a sex tape.”

  I blink at Richman. “What?” I ask.

  “You heard me,” Richman says, nodding. I can’t believe what I’m hearing.

  “Surely this is some kind of joke?” I ask.

  Richman looks toward the window. “Honestly, I’m getting sick of whatever this is. You’re all wasting our time.”

  I don’t like the way he makes it a plural, suggesting that I’m part of the problem. I know better than to argue with him, though. Richman in a good mood is already hard to deal with. He’s in a bad mood today, and the man has a lot of power. He can fire anyone besides the owner, and I don’t feel safe right now.

  I don’t know why I have such a strong feeling of foreboding.

  “Where did this video come from?” I ask. It has to be bullshit. It can’t be real.

  “Leon will arrive with it, shortly,” Richman says without looking up at me. I groan inwardly. Of course, Leon is behind this. It was too good to be true that he wasn’t a part of the company anymore. I was stupid thinking I was rid of him. God, I’m such an idiot.

  “Have you even seen the video?” I ask. “Or is this just another fake, like the recording?”

  Richman shakes his head. “We haven’t seen it. It’s what we’re here for.”

  I nod. I don’t have anything else to say. We sit in an awkward silence for a while before the door opens again and Leon walks in. He looks smugger that before if that’s possible.

  My stomach tightens. What the hell is he doing here? It feels like I’m stuck in a time loop. He was fired – there’s no reason for him to be here.

  “Wes,” he says tightly, barely a greeting.

  “Leon,” I reply because I don’t know what else to say in front of all the board members that had him escorted out of the building less than a week ago.

  He walks toward the front of the room, standing next to Richman like he’s someone important. I don’t like that he’s there. I’m irritated with him in general. I’ve been so good to this guy, giving him so many chances when he didn’t deserve it. This is how he repays me, by stabbing me in the back like this.

  “Has Miss Jordan been summoned?” Richman asks. They’re going to make Kylie watch this, too? I’m upset for her sake. She doesn’t deserve all this shit, and I feel like it’s my fault she’s involved. She comes in a moment later, and then we’re all assembled the way we were last week on Wednesday.

  “Take a seat,” Richman tells Kylie. She sits down as he asks. She looks at me, and she’s very nervous this time. It was completely unexpected and I know she’s just as unsure about Friday as I am. I want to make her feel better, to reach out and squeeze her hand and tell her it’s alright. I can’t do that, though, because we’re trying to pretend we have nothing to do with each other. I’m not sure how long that will last, but I’m planning on riding this out until the very end.

  She looks away from me without any form of acknowledgment other than that glance, and I know she feels the same. It doesn’t make it any less nerve-wracking, though.

  Richman opens a laptop and Leon produces a USB. Richman takes it from him and inserts it into the laptop, pressing a few buttons before he turns the screen so everyone in the room can see. The first gray images appear on the screen, and I hold my breath instinctively.

  The footage is so grainy it takes me a moment to realize what I’m seeing. Once I’ve made out the shapes, though, I can’t really unsee it. It’s two figures, fucking. That’s clear enough. And it looks like the conference room Kylie and I used. Other than that, I can’t see anything. A man and a woman are fucking on the table, but it’s impossible to see the faces. It’s such a relief.

  I glance at Kylie who’s watching the video intently, but she doesn’t look like she’s going to faint anymore. It’s us – I know that for sure. There’s my hips, slamming against her ass – but they don’t know that, and there’s no way they would be able to figure it out. It can be anyone with white and black office clothes on.

  The video isn’t very long, and I think Leon must have set up a cheap camera to capture us. I don’t know how he figured the conference room would be the best place, but it doesn’t matter. The video is so shaky there’s nothing that can be said about it.

  Finally, the video ends and Richman slams the laptop shut. He’s so angry it’s palpable, and he glares at Leon.

  “That’s enough,” he snaps at him. “I don’t want to hear anything about this again. You’re officially a persona non grata at RidgeCo and you will be escorted out by security if you set foot in the lobby.”

  Leon gasps. “But you can see it’s them!” he cries out.

  Richman shakes his head. “I don’t want to hear it. Don’t make me drag you out of the building. This time you’ll regret
it.”

  Leon spins to face Kylie, pointing his finger in her face. It takes all my self control not to jump up and sucker punch that asshole in the nose.

  “You won’t get away with this,” he rants. “I’ll be damned if I lose my job over this. Yet another Jordan slut ruining my life.”

  I stand up. His bullshit has gone on long enough. “What the fuck are you talking about, Leon?”

  He smirks and turns to me. “You have no idea what your little office slut is really up to. Let me enlighten you. Her mother used to work for the company.”

  I glance at Kylie to check her reaction, to make sure she’s okay. We talked about all of this the other night. She was devastated by the whole destruction of her family. I don’t want this asshole bringing it up and causing her any more pain.

  But Leon takes that glance to mean something different. He grins smugly like he thinks he’s about to drop a bomb on us.

  “Yeah, that’s right. She slept with the boss, too. Only this boss just so happened to be the owner of the company. It was a big mess. She ended up getting fired, there was a ton of drama surrounding it, and then the no fraternizing policy was put into place.”

  So far, he isn’t telling me anything I don’t already know.

  His smug smile then dissolves into a twisted grimace. “But it wasn’t soon enough. It affected more than just your family, poor little Kylie.”

  The way he says it, so demeaning and derogatory, has me ready to launch myself at him, but I catch the nearly imperceptible shake of Kylie’s head.

  Leon keeps right on going. “Turns out once Mr. Jordan found out his wife wasn’t the faithful, doting wife he believed her to be, he got his revenge.”

  “Jesus, Leon. That’s enough,” I say. I can’t just stand here and let him say such terrible things about Kylie’s parents, even if they did do the things he’s saying.

  “No, it’s not. Do you have any idea why she’s here? She wants to take you down—the whole company—because of what happened with her family. And you’re stupid enough to fuck her.”

  Richman stands up now, too. “That’s enough of your accusations, Leon. Stop flinging around rumors that you can’t back up.”

  Leon smiles again, but it’s a terrible, hateful smile. “Oh, I have plenty of proof here. Because the good Mr. Jordan? I know for a fact that he slept around. Because I caught him fucking my wife.”

  The collective intake of breath is audible around the room. Holy shit. No wonder Leon is so irrationally obsessed with the no fraternizing policy. He was affected by Kylie’s family as well. But he’s dead wrong if he thinks that excuses any of his behavior.

  “Leon,” I say, trying to be as calm and patient as I can, because I’m reminded yet again that his wife is suffering from cancer—his wife that he remained with for all these years, even through her unfaithfulness. “I’m sorry for what you’ve gone through. But that doesn’t give you the right to try to take Kylie down with you.”

  He sneers. “Exactly what a man who’s pussy-whipped would say.”

  “Okay, we’re done here,” Richman says. “Leon, get out now or I’m calling security.”

  Leon seems to understand what a threat is this time. He shuts his mouth, pulls the USB from the laptop and in a huff, he storms toward the door. He leaves, slamming the door behind him so hard I can almost feel it.

  “As for the two of you,” Richman says when it’s silent again. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but this is ridiculous. I’ve never heard so many complaints about the same two people. You’re both fired.”

  “What!?” I cry out the same time Kylie does.

  “You can’t do this,” I say for the both of us. If I thought I couldn’t be any more surprised, I was wrong.

  Richman glares at me. “Watch me. I have heard about the two of you for much longer than I care about.”

  “But none of this shows that we did anything,” I protest. Kylie seems to be in shock. She’s not saying anything, just watching me fight it all out by myself.

  “It doesn’t matter what you do or don’t do,” Richman says. “There are scandals surrounding your name and this project is too important to risk losing because of poor publicity.”

  I blink at Richman. When I look at Harold, hoping to God, he can help me, talk some sense into Richman, he just shrugs his shoulders at me.

  “I would suggest you both take care of your personal belongings before the day and leave politely. I won’t hesitate to list you as persona non grata, too.”

  Kylie tries to say something but Richman shoots her a look so hard she shuts her mouth again. She gets up, and I can see by the way she walks to the door that she’s furious. I can’t even go after her to make sure she’s alright because that would give us away. I’m not sure if that matters anymore, seeing that we both just lost our jobs, but I don’t want to make matters worse than they are.

  It’s already a lot worse than it needed to be.

  “I’m sorry it took so much of your time,” I say to Richman. I glance at Harold who looks a little apologetic before I leave the boardroom and head toward my own office.

  I can’t believe that I’ve been fired. I was the CEO of the company from the start, stepping into the position my dad had created for me. Being fired was never in the cards for me.

  How did this happen?

  Of course, I know exactly how it happened. I met Kylie, and I couldn’t stay away from her. I had to have her, repeatedly. No one found out about it, as far as I can tell, but that doesn’t matter because it still ruined our careers.

  I wonder if it would have gone this far if nothing happened between us. Leon hates Kylie, and he might have tried the same things, but we might have reacted differently. I don’t know. I can drive myself crazy with what-ifs.

  In my office, I close the door and turn to my desk. I have so much to pack up. I can’t pack it all in one day, but I don’t intend on going out without a fight. I know Charles Hendricks personally. They guy may have started a snowball of messed up shit with Kylie’s family, but he’s still the owner of the company. Maybe I can still get this straightened out.

  Kylie

  I’m at my desk trying my best not to cry. I can’t cry here, not now. I must be big about this and take my punishment. I’ve done wrong, and I must bear the consequences. That’s how it works, right? That’s what being an adult is all about.

  Except, I hate this. I lost my job just like I feared I would. Where do I go, now? What do I do?

  Just beneath the threatening tears, panic waits for me. I know the moment I walk out of these doors I’m going to fall apart. It’s crazy how just a few weeks ago I had this master plan that didn’t end with me staying with RidgeCo anyway. But everything has changed. I’ve come to love this job. And Wes. What about him? What about us? I can’t even think about that yet.

  It doesn’t take me long to pack my things. I’ve been at the new desk for such a short time I didn’t have time to accumulate rubbish. I guess it was a blessing in disguise. I tried very hard to be anything but devastated, and I failed.

  Why couldn’t I just have stayed away from Wes? Okay, so he was my boss at the time. But I should have stayed away from him, told him no when he came onto me like that the first time in his office. No matter how much I’d wanted it.

  Because he was as irresistible then as he is now.

  I shook off the thought. He was trouble from the start, and I fell for it. And look where I am now, because of it? I’ve lost my job, my income. How am I going to take care of my mother, now? How am I going to find a new job? I will probably have to be a receptionist again because I wasn’t a project manager for long enough.

  The thought of taking a step back in my career breaks the dam wall, and I start crying. I can be strong saying goodbye to my friends. I can leave the company behind. But taking a step back in life – that gets me. My eyes well up with tears and I scold myself for being such a baby.

  The desire was so damn strong every time Wes made a move,
I couldn’t resist. I should have. I should have resisted every time. I had a plan. But I wanted him as much as he wanted me.

  Maybe if I was strong enough to resist someone like Wes, I would still have my job. God knows what Leon might have done anyway, but I know this is partly my fault. I should have been stricter, more set on saying no.

  But I didn’t want to say no to Wes.

  And the sex with him is the best sex I’ve had in my life. But I can’t think like that, I scold myself. No sex is good enough to lose your job over. No man is good enough to sacrifice your career, your future for.

  God, I’m just an idiot.

  I shouldn’t have slept with him. I should have resisted. I should have done the right thing and walked away, or reported him or something.

  But, of course, I couldn’t do that. I wanted him and I had him and every moment that I did I loved it. Sure, I could have stopped, but I didn’t want to stop. So, I didn’t. That made me just as guilty.

  I take a deep breath and start on my drawers.

  No one stops by my desk while I’m packing. They’ve all heard, and I’m sure none of them want to see me or talk to me. I imagine it’s a scandal, they’re frowning down on me. I’m embarrassed and humiliated, and even if they want to come to me and offer their condolences, I don’t want it.

  I stack all the work I’ve already done on the project on the corner of my desk for whoever is going to take over on this project. With Leon, me and Wes gone, I’m not sure how well the project is going to do, but I guess that isn’t my worry anymore. I imagine a new CEO interviewing new people for the same position, and I’m suddenly angry.

  I’m furious. My blood boils beneath my skin, and I feel like I could choke on my rage. What am I so angry about? The injustice of it all, the fucking unfairness. I’m a woman, and I’ve been discriminated against. Leon has made me seem like a problem from the start and Wes has objectified me.

  The latter isn’t true – or fair – and I know it. But I’m so angry, and I feel sorry for myself. I want to wallow in self-pity. I want someone to realize that I am a victim. Anyone. I was fired for doing nothing wrong.