These were the facts and they were virtually all that was known about the reclusive billionaire. Diana couldn’t help but smile as she read the short interview with him. Though she had never heard him speak, she could almost hear his short, terse replies as the journalist desperately pried for any snippet of information about his personal life.
She was smiling lightly at the article as she heard the click of heels walk towards her up the tiled hallway and stop directly behind the sofa where she was sitting.
“You must be the new temp,” the cold voice from the receiver on the front desk said to her. Diana turned around to find a woman a good deal older than her, possibly in her late thirties or early forties with slick black hair, pulled back into a tight bun, dark hazel eyes, ruby lips, high cheek bones and olive skin roughly the same color as Catahassa Yazzie’s was.
She would have been very attractive were it not for the sour expression on her face when she saw Diana.
“I’m Diana Grant,” Diana said holding out her hand to the woman. The woman looked down at it as though it were something entirely unpleasant. Like a slug or a cockroach. She lifted her gaze back to Diana’s face and the sourness in her expression seemed to increase.
“I am Amanda Hawkins,” she said without taking Diana’s hand, “how old are you, Diana?” Amanda asked suddenly. Diana’s eyes widened and she nearly reeled back at the question.
“I’m twenty four,” Diana answered hesitantly with a questioning glance at Amanda.
“The agency lead me to believe you were older,” she said as her gaze seemed to take Diana in entirely. Diana, suddenly self-conscious, began straightening her blouse over her very large breasts.
Diana had never been a particularly thin girl, though, one could not call her fat either. Her body was decidedly average sized, save for her overlarge breasts and particularly wide hips.
The light brown hair that blended in with most surroundings and small green eyes, helped to ensure that she was never the most attractive in the room, but was also never singled out as being particularly unattractive.
This suited Diana fine. She was a solitary creature by nature and did not like to be singled out for any reason.
But now, the way Amanda was looking at her, it was as though she was threatened by Diana’s very presence.
Amanda heaved a heavy, long suffering sigh that Diana thought was more than a bit dramatic given the circumstances.
“I suppose you’ll do,” Amanda finally said. “If you’ll come with me I’ll give you a brief tour of the office before you start work with Sandra.”
Amanda turned her back and started off before Diana could say anything in reply. Diana hurried as quickly as she could in the black heels she had picked out for the day, as Amanda lead her to a glass door marked CEO: Catahassa Yazzie.
“To your right is my office which leads to Mr. Yazzie’s office,” Amanda said with a nod indicating a glass door on the right. "You won’t need to go in there unless I call you in for something and that probably won’t happen. I usually get Sandra to run any errands I need. This door,” she said indicating another glass door to the left, “is Mr. Gomez’s office. He’s Mr. Yazzie’s associate.”
Amanda stopped in front of this door and turned to face Diana.
“Now, you’re technically his assistant,” she said, “but as he’s rarely in this office, we have you working with Sandra up front as a second receptionist.”
Diana nodded in reply as this woman’s forbidding presence made her a tad bit nervous about speaking.
“But, on the chance that he does come in,” she said, “he’ll probably call you into his office.”
Diana nodded once more and gave a small smile for good measure. Perhaps appearing friendly would soften Amanda a bit. It didn’t.
Amanda only gave Diana another appraising look before walking on.
“Back here is the break room,” she said walking down a long hallway that lead to a door marked ‘Employees Only’. This time she opened the door to the room and walked in. Diana followed. It was much smaller than any of the other offices looked to be. It held two lockers on either side and one microwave that looked as though soup had spilled inside of it several times over.
“You can put your things in the locker there,” Amanda said pointing towards the lockers on the left hand side. “If you’ve bought anything for lunch, you can eat it in here. Your lunch is at twelve thirty and you will have thirty minutes. You also get two fifteen minute breaks a day. One at ten fifteen and one at three fifteen. Do you have any questions?”
She stood in front of Diana with her arms folded as though she was blocking the way to the door. As though she thought Diana was going to cower and try to run out. Diana had no intention of doing any such thing.
She had never been particularly brave. At least not in the traditional ways people thought of. She was horrible at physical fighting and had been out of shape most of her life. She had no desire to shoot guns or bows and arrows or any other type of weapon.
But, years of being bullied about her mousy looks and larger than average size when she was younger had given her a thick skin. One thing she was very good at was standing up to bullies.
And, Diana could tell after their little tour that that’s exactly what Amanda Hawkins was. A school yard bully in a tight skirt and high heels.
So, Diana stood up straight and squared her shoulders as she asked the one question that she was certain would throw Amanda off her guard.
“When will I be able to see Mr. Yazzie?” she asked.
Diana smiled inwardly as she watched Amanda’s face falter. She looked wrong footed for half a moment before returning to her sour expression.
"And why would you need to see Mr. Yazzie?" She asked in the coldest voice Diana had yet heard from her.
"Well, I was told I would be working for him," Diana answered with a similar coolness. She threw a confident closed lipped smile Amanda's way. Amanda raised one thin, painted eyebrow at her.
"Everyone in this building works for Mr. Yazzie in one way or another," she said. "Very few of his employees have the pleasure of meeting him. You report to me. And I, in turn, will report anything of note to Mr. Yazzie. Is that clear?"
Diana, recognizing that pushing the issue further was not wise, simply nodded but kept the closed lipped smile painted on her face.
This seemed to unsettle Amanda for a moment. But the next second, she replied to Diana’s unspoken challenge with a closed lipped smile of her own.
“Do you have any other questions, Diana?” she asked.
“No,” Diana answered, “I think everything’s clear to me now.”
“Good,” Amanda said. She opened the door to the small break room and walked back down the hall. Diana followed in her wake.
“Sandra will fill you in on your duties,” she said, “it shouldn’t be too difficult. If you have any questions about the job, she can answer them for you.”
They reached the clear desk where Sandra was once again typing away on the large desktop computer. Amanda ushered Diana behind the desk to a second, larger computer and swivel chair.
“Sandra,” Amanda said causing the poor girl to jump. She turned to Amanda, her eyes wide.
“Yes, Amanda?” she asked in a relatively meek voice. Very different from the bright, happy tone that she had greeted Diana with.
“Once you’re done with...whatever it is you’re doing,” Amanda said throwing a glance over to Sandra’s computer with distaste, “you can catch Diana upon her duties.”
“Yes ma’am,” Sandra said.
Amanda nodded to both Sandra and Diana and turned to leave. Diana saw Sandra let out a small, relieved breath which she caught again when Amanda turned back to her.
“Oh Sandra, I almost forgot,” Amanda said, “Mr. Yazzie and I will be working through lunch, we’ll need our usual takeout orders from China Grove.”
“Sure,” Sandra said offering Amanda a shaky smile which was not returned. Amanda simply gav
e Sandra a sour look and nodded before turning on her heel and heading back down the hall to her office.
“Bitch,” Sandra muttered as soon as Amanda had closed the door.
“Is she always like that?” Diana inquired.
“Ever since I’ve been here,” Sandra answered with an eye roll, “it’s why we’ve had such high turnover. I’ve only been here a year and I’m the longest standing employee besides Mr. Yazzie, Amanda and Mr. Gomez.”
“It must be bad if people are leaving just because of one person,” Diana said.
“It is,” Sandra answered, “she made the last two real estate executives cry. They both quit the next day.”
“If it’s that bad,” Diana asked lowering her voice and moving her chair closer to Sandra’s computer, “why haven’t Mr. Yazzie and Mr. Gomez done something about it?”
“No one knows,” Sandra says, “I guess the company’s doing well regardless. And Mr. Gomez is hardly ever here so…”
“But, Mr. Yazzie must have noticed what’s going on,” Diana pressed. She didn’t know why, but she knew that she had to get at least a little bit of information on Catahassa Yazzie today. Otherwise, she would have agreed to spend six months reporting to a cold blooded bitch for nothing.
“We hardly ever see Mr. Yazzie,” Sandra said, now leaning towards Diana eagerly as though revealing a cherished secret to a sister, “When he does come out he just walks through the hall and out the door. I don’t think I’ve even heard him speak.”
“They do say he’s reclusive,” Diana said.
“That’s one word for it,” Sandra said with a small giggle. Then she stopped suddenly, her eyes grew wide like a deer who heard the crack of a hunter’s boot. She looked towards Amanda and Mr. Yazzie’s joint office and muttered, “Oh, shit. She’s coming.”
Diana did indeed see an ominous shadow move from behind the glass window in the office and towards the door.
Sandra looked panicked, but Diana knew exactly what to do. She reached over to Sandra’s mouse and brought up the Email Outlook tab on her computer screen.
“Tell me about the outlook,” Diana whispered just as the door opened and Amanda stepped out eyes fixed on them.
Sandra gave Diana a thankful look before beginning.
“Now, the emails you’ll be dealing with are mostly general inquiries, they’re in this file…”
“Sandra?” Amanda called. Even though Sandra now must have known that she had nothing to fear, she still jumped at the sound of Amanda’s voice.
“Yes?” Sandra asked, her timid voice returning.
“Mr. Yazzie has decided to go pick up lunch himself today. We won’t need you to put in the order,” Amanda said.
“Oh, Ok,” Sandra answered. This time Sandra put on a bright smile that seemed genuine. Again, Amanda did not reciprocate. She simply turned on her heel once more and went back into the office.
“Thanks for that,” Sandra said turning to Diana, once the door had closed behind Amanda. “I would have gotten such a lecture if she’d found us both talking in front of the computer.”
After that, Sandra showed Diana what her duties would include. Diana’s job, from the sound of it, was not too difficult. She was to keep the company facebook and twitter feeds up to date and answer general email inquiries. Sandra answered the phones unless she was on lunch or break.
“But very few people actually call,” Sandra said, “and when they do, they almost always ask for Amanda or Mr. Yazzie. On the off chance they call for Mr. Gomez, you'll take the call and email the message to him."
"Does Mr. Gomez ever come in?" Diana asked interested. Even in the article she had read about Mr. Yazzie, but a Charles Gomez had never been mentioned.
"I’ve only seen him a couple of times since I've been here," Sandra answered, "Amanda says he heads up the New York office. So I assume he spends most of his time there."
“But he has an office here too?” Diana asked. If he ran the branch in New York, she would assume he would use that as his main office and use a conference room in Albuquerque when he had to.
Sandra shrugged.
“No one tells me why they do things that way,” she said. “I’m just the girl who answers the phones.”
“And, I guess I’m just the one who updates the facebook page?” Diana asked coming to terms with what Sandra was telling her.
“You got it,” Sandra said. “Amanda doesn’t like too many questions. Especially not about Mr. Yazzie. It’s best to keep your head down and do your work.”
Diana nodded. That was fine with her. She didn’t like a lot of talk in general. She thrived in environments which required silence to work.
That was part of the reason she was busy trying to earn a master’s degree in anthropology. On sight, when you were digging up bones or ancient artifacts, there was no time for social gossip or chit chat.
Even in labs and in office spaces writing up research papers, which is where she knew most of her work would take place, she would be virtually on her own.
That was how she liked it.
Diana had always had a very low threshold of tolerance for small talk and meaningless conversation. She had been worried at first that Sandra would be one of those chatty girls who wanted to gossip the day away.
With Sandra making the suggestion that they keep their heads down, Diana was more than glad that didn’t seem to be the case.
Chapter Two
Diana worked happily in silence for all of five minutes before Sandra’s bright, high pitched voice sounded from behind her.
“So, do you have a boyfriend?” she asked eagerly. Diana swallowed to stop herself from cringing.
“No,” she answered simply hoping that would be the end of it.
“Oh, well, you’re lucky,” Sandra said quickly, “believe me they’re a lot more trouble than they’re worth. Last night, Ash-that’s my boyfriend-comes home at eleven o’clock and I’m all 'where were you?' and he’s all…”
Diana closed her eyes and tried to let the sound of Sandra’s high pitched voice just wash over her. She prayed that she would be able to get her work done while Sandra talked.
Luckily, Sandra didn't require much feedback for her chatter. As long as Diana said 'hmm' or 'yeah' at the right intervals, Sandra was pleased.
All the same, Diana was happy when the clock struck twelve and Sandra announced she was going to lunch.
"I'll be back to relieve you at twelve thirty," Sandra said hurrying down the hallway and through the employees only door.
Diana found herself at last alone in the office. Other than the occasional ringing of the phone (which she almost always transferred to Amanda), no other sound issued from the large office suite.
She went about tweeting and facebooking a series of articles on property value which had been suggested by Amanda and then she answered two general queries that had come in via the website.
By the time it neared twelve thirty, Diana could not help but think that she had gotten more done in the half hour of Sandra's absence than she had in two and a half with Sandra squeaking away in her ear.
She was very pleased with herself until she saw, out of the corner of her eye, a figure from the back office move towards the door. She felt her body tense before she realized what she was doing. Was Sandra’s fear of Amanda contagious?
She shook her head a bit and told herself firmly to get it together. There was no reason for her to be fearful of a bully. Especially when Diana was doing exactly as she had been told to do by both Amanda and Sandra.
Diana straightened her back and continued to compose her response to an inquiry about Mr. Yazzie’s availability to meet with potential clients (this was a form response. ‘To set an appointment with Mr. Yazzie please call the office’).
All the same, she looked out of the corner of her eye at the figure emerging from the office. Her heart beat quickened as she realized that it was not Amanda walking out of the clear office door and into the lobby.
Instead a t
all masculine form came striding towards the desk. Though she could not see him clearly, Diana knew who it was.
She could make out his thick dark hair and the olive tint of his skin as he strode quickly towards her desk.
She didn’t dare look up at him as he passed. She didn’t want to look like some obsessed fan girl, after all. So, she tried as best as she could to keep her eyes locked on the email form in front of her.
All the same, she stopped typing when she heard him pause a moment as he passed her desk. Her fingers picked up at this when she saw him begin to move on.
Her heart beat thudded in her chest when he stopped before reaching the front door and turned to walk back to her desk.
He stopped in front of her and she looked up at him. Those dark eyes which had captivated her on the cover of the magazine were even more intriguing in person. Diana had to force herself not to stare into them too long.
“You’re new,” Catahassa Yazzie said unnecessarily.
“Yes,” Diana answered with a smile as void of nerves as she could make it. “I’m Diana Grant. Your new temp.”
She stood from her seat and held out her hand to him, he took it.
Diana assumed that he would simply shake it and let go but he didn’t. Instead, he held on to it in a firm, warm grasp for a moment. His dark eyes looked into her light green ones as though he had never seen anything quite like her.
“Do you have any Zuni blood in you?” he asked suddenly.
“No,” Diana answered honestly.
As far as she knew, most of her family was either German or Irish.
“You’re sure of that?” Mr. Yazzie asked, pressing her as though he thought she was trying to hide something from him.
“Pretty sure,” Diana answered taken aback, “I think I’m about as white as you can get.”
BILLIONAIRE ROMANCE: The Unforgettable Southern Billionaires: The Complete Collection Boxed Set (Young Adult Rich Alpha Male Billionaire Romance) Page 20