I needed a piece of gum. Making my way over to my desk I tried opening the top drawer.
“Come on you stupid piece of—”
Finally, it gave. I popped a piece in my mouth. There was one glorious moment when the spicy flavor exploded, and I forgot everything.
Memories flooded my head of sitting outside and gazing at the stars with my dad when I was young when my mother was in the house in one of her moods. Dad always sharing his gum with me.
Gum relaxed me.
I scratched my chin and gazed around the room. My tie, shoes, and even my socks were strewn around the room. Luckily, I still wore my pants and shirt.
“What on earth happened?” I turned to Ms. Drake. Her eyes were wide as if I still had my dick caught in my fly.
She didn’t answer.
As I rubbed my chin, a familiar yet completely out of place aroma filled my nose. It took a few moments, but I learned many, many years ago to seek this scent out, to crave it.
Vagina.
I smelled vagina.
It was coming from my fingers. Ms. Drake gasped as I took another sniff of my fingertips. I put my hands in my pockets as embarrassment crept up my neck. That’s when I felt something soft and a little damp. My heart pounded as I removed the item and held up the black lace fabric.
“Ms. Drake, what is this?”
Her hazel eyes bounced rapidly between me and what was hanging from my fingers.
“Ms. Drake, answer me. What is this?”
Finally, she spoke, “Looks like underwear to me, sir.”
She frowned as I stifled a groan.
This wasn’t good. What did I do? I really hope I didn’t try to reenact the fantasy that I thought up last Saturday night. It involved Ms. Drake, my office couch, and her wearing nothing but thigh-high stockings. Number three on my Ms. Drake fantasy list.
Glancing at the door, I realized anyone could be standing outside listening to this conversation. I went over to shut the door and took in the mess of the room.
I was never drinking again. After this, I may not even have money to buy alcohol. Ms. Drake will file a lawsuit for sure, and I can bet on being fired.
I was so screwed.
Making my way back to my desk I tried to devise a plan to rectify this problem. Maybe I could convince her of my regret. Explain I had been drinking.
Ugh, that made it sound worse.
I had ignored her and banished her since her first day on the job. Not only that, but I walked out of the middle of her interview. She was probably itching to hold this against me.
Why can’t I just be nice to people?
I dropped the panties on the desk and heard a groan from Ms. Drake as I sat. I imagined how beautiful the black lace would look against her silky white skin. Just hugging her upper thigh. Maybe a little bulge of the lower cheeks of her ass peeking out.
The captain was waking, and he was angry.
I needed to calm him down. That was how I got into this situation to begin with. Those zipper marks didn’t make an erection fun.
“Ms. Drake, what happened tonight?”
Maybe she would say she slipped again, only this time it was me who fell into her lap. That my hand accidentally snagged on her panties and pulled them off. I frantically tried to get them off me, as the lace was tangled with my watch and that’s how my shoes, socks, and tie came off, and how her panties ended up in my pocket.
It could happen. Maybe.
“You came and got me in Accounting and told me you had to speak to me, Mr. Payne. By the time I got to your office you had taken off your clothes. I saw you were passed out on the couch, so I tried to rearrange your body, so you were lying on your side in case you became sick. Your zipper got caught on my sleeve, and well, I think you can guess what happened after that.”
Despite the grin on her face looking forced, I felt a sense of relief. That’s even better than what I thought up. Thankfully nothing bad or lawsuit worthy happened tonight.
That just leaves the pocket-panties. I do and don’t want to know how they got in my pocket. “Umm, was there anything else that happened, Ms. Drake?”
She was shaking her head no at me a little too intensely but I didn’t care. Even as an exaggerated giggle escaped her lips I still felt relief.
“I apologize for my behavior, Ms. Drake. If you are worried I might become angry or your job is at stake if you tell me the truth, please understand nothing could be further from the truth. I normally don’t drink, but this day is always bad for me and, well . . . that’s not important. What is important is for you to understand that if I did anything that made you uncomfortable I need to know in order to rectify it.”
Why did I make that so wordy?
I could have just said sorry and left it at that. It’s like I want to have had sex with her. I mean, I very much want to have sex with her, but not like this. Not when we still work for the same company and I was so drunk I blacked out during the entire thing.
Maybe it’s my subconscious freaking out. Maybe if I explain what happened in the past, I could leave Ms. Drake and this night alone.
“Ms. Drake, I need to explain something to you. About a year ago, I had an assistant who . . . umm . . . tried her best to seduce me. I kept telling her no. Finally, her actions, along with her need to constantly be on her cell phone, caused me to fire her.”
I glanced at the panties as I pushed away thoughts of what to do with them, before continuing, “Normally I would never discuss a former or current employee’s issues but I feel tonight warrants it. She felt the need to retaliate by filing a sexual harassment lawsuit against me. It never went anywhere because her accusations were unfounded. So, it’s important to me to find out exactly what occurred tonight. Understand that my behavior tonight was a mistake. I may have taken advantage of you in a way that was highly inappropriate. You have my sincerest apologies.”
“You fingered me,” Ms. Drake whispered.
FOUR
Payne’s Rule
When push comes to shove, think with a clear head.
A New Year.
Optimism. New Goals. Rebirth.
None of that was happening to me.
Last year ended on a downturn. Having acted in an inappropriate manner toward Ms. Drake after the holiday party I apologized profusely. She appeared troubled by it and I made sure she made it home safely. I wasn’t proud that I had taken advantage of Ms. Drake in my drunken state but we agreed to move on, for the sake of our jobs, and just be boss and assistant.
Since then I have stayed as far away from alcohol and Ms. Drake as possible.
But now something else was eating away at me.
David had surgery yesterday. Tiffany told me to go to work today, but I had yet to hear from her.
“Henrik, working late I see.”
Edgar swaggered into my office. His eyes swept the room and I wondered if it would spread its legs for him. He sat and made his choice to seduce the sofa.
“Yes. Some of us like to work hard to earn our keep.”
He chuckled and shook his head. “I work.”
“At the ladies,” I mumbled but he noticed.
“That too.”
Edgar was a good employee; I just enjoyed giving him a hard time. Someone had to be the grouch in the friendship. It seemed I was born to the brooding friend role, thanks to my mom.
“I know you work hard, I’m just tired I guess.”
“Where’s your new assistant Morgana?”
My jaw ticked as I sat a bit straighter in my chair. I had tucked Ms. Drake away in the Sales department. I know we agreed to be boss and assistant again, but I was still having trouble being around her. Now I was running out of places to hide her at work.
The only department left was IT. Edgar was the head of IT. Since he was so interested in seeing her at the holiday party I wanted to keep her far from his seductive gaze.
“You mean Ms. Drake? She’s down in Sales.”
“I know.” The corner of his l
ip ticked up causing my blood pressure to rise.
The perfect Edgar had a sick fascination in watching me become flustered. Maybe that’s why he hooked up with Bechmann several years ago. They bonded over their mutual love of irritating me.
“If you knew, why did you ask?” I didn’t take the bait. Instead, I focused on my computer and tried to recall why I had last year’s sales report open.
“It just seems odd that your new assistant has yet to actually assist you. She has helped out almost everyone but you. Why have you kept her away, Henrik?”
“Perhaps I was being a good boss and having her learn all the aspects of the company. Who knows, she could run it one day and then she would thank me for having her spend time in every department.”
That should shut him up.
Edgar clapped his hands once before he rose from the couch. “What a great idea, Henrik. She could start in my department next week, which is perfect timing. Cynthia starts her vacation on Monday so Morgana could help fill—”
“No.”
He tilted his head with just a whisper of a smile on his lips. “What? But you said she needs to learn all the departments. I think IT and HR are the only departments left. Oh, you want her to work with Evaleen next week in HR? Well, I’ll go ask her to see if that works for her—”
“No.”
“Then I’m confused.”
“Stop being an ass, Edgar. You aren’t confused at all so you can stop laughing.”
His shoulder shook. Edgar’s eyes widened and he lifted his hands in surrender.
“I just have some notes I need to give her, so if you don’t mind.” I grabbed my pile of pink notes. I had come up with a great way to avoid Ms. Drake—the pink sticky note.
“She has probably gone home for the night, which was what I came here to talk to you about. How about we go out for the night, like old times? Get something to eat, maybe hit up a bar. How about it?”
Perhaps a night out was exactly what I required to get my mind off the surgery, and even Ms. Drake. I needed a distraction, and it’s as if he read my mind.
“Sure. Let me just drop these on Ms. Drake’s desk and then I can meet you in your office.”
Edgar left and I was not far behind him as I made my way toward the elevators. My head was swimming with worry about David and Tiffany as I made it to the Sales floor and found Ms. Drake’s desk.
“Guess you didn’t expect me to be here did you, Mr. Payne?”
Surprised, I willed my eyes not to dip to Ms. Drake’s chest as she leaned against the wall of her cubicle.
I struggled to keep my eyes on her face as her flower print did nothing to camouflage her pointed nipples.
“Yes, I thought you had left for the evening, Ms. Drake. I was just leaving you some notes for Monday morning.”
She pushed off the wall, confident and oh, if it wasn’t sexy. Turning in front of me she took a seat on her desk, facing me.
“Well, I am still here. Anything you need to say to me you can tell me right now.”
Her eyes narrowed, and I wondered if she expected me to apologize again for the holiday party. Maybe she was recording this and wanted to have it on tape when she told Jacob.
If that was the case, I was not saying a word. I told her I was sorry and if she needed to speak to me again about it, she could. I refused to fall into a trap.
I met her glare with one of my own.
She leaned forward. There was a flurry of papers in the air as she fell. Ms. Drake’s face was on her chair in seconds. I heard a moan.
I laughed. It was impossible not to. Her chest may be a magnet for my eyes, but her entire being was a walking sitcom. This woman, for all her sex appeal, had the agility of a toddler.
“Ms. Drake, you really must stop attacking chairs.”
I eventually lent her a hand to help her up. There were a few of my sticky notes attached to her clothes, and I removed them.
“What are you doing?” Ms. Drake turned her head to me.
“You got my notes on your ass.” I produced one and smiled.
I meant to be funny, to laugh with her; but as her eyes darted to the floor my grin fell. It wasn’t even her eyes that had heat radiating from my pores, it was the flush on her cheeks. There was something quite breathtaking when Morgana’s creamy skin turned pink. It seemed to glow.
My cock twitched. But when she adjusted her glasses, the twitching turned to a partial salute.
“I see. Perhaps if you didn’t use so many pink pieces of paper, I wouldn’t have things stuck to my butt.”
I shook my head. “Then how would I communicate to you, Ms. Drake?”
“With your mouth, Mr. Payne.”
Those words slipping out of her lips created a full-on salute. If I was going to be truthful, that wasn’t even the worst part. Yes, her words caused my eyes to involuntarily become obsessed with her lips, but there was so much more to it.
The worst part was what she did after those words. Her tongue darted out, causing her lips to glisten. They shined like a tractor beam guiding me toward her.
Was it any wonder why I pinned her in place? My hands firmly grasped the edge of her desk on either side of her thighs. Her milky thighs that seemed to be ready to burst out of her little skirt. I understood I should have turned around and walked away, but those lips and she was wearing glasses. Glasses!
I knew I needed help.
Suddenly I heard some shrieking child coming from her desk.
“What the . . .” I glanced at the vibrating cell phone next to her thigh.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Payne, but I have to get this.” With a frown, she pushed back on me and grabbed the phone.
“Hey, Grandma, how are you?”
I straightened and adjusted my tie, trying not to eavesdrop on the call. Though I did hear her mention how she was not a lesbian and wondered what type of grandmother would ask such questions?
A few moments later, Ms. Drake was shoving her phone into my face. I guess it’s for me. “Uh . . . hello?”
“Is this my granddaughter’s lesbian lover?” A throaty tone filtered out, and I wondered for a second if she had ever been a phone sex operator. Bile burned the back of my throat, knowing this was Ms. Drake’s grandmother.
“This is Mr. Payne, your granddaughter’s boss.”
“Well, if you aren’t a woman then why were you trying to woo my granddaughter?”
Before I could answer she continued, and I realized this wasn’t going to be an easy conversation. I made my way to the window to get out of earshot of Ms. Drake.
“She is a good, respectable young lady and she doesn’t need a man’s penis to distract her. Morgana should have lots of options, like boobs and a vagina, maybe an ass.”
I tried my best to swallow as my cock didn’t know whether to high-five this woman on the other end of the phone or hang himself.
“She is a beautiful and smart woman, Mr. Payne. There are a lot of nice ladies that are drooling to tap that ass. Now you came along and confused my sweet, innocent Morgana. Shame on you. But—”
She paused but I was so enthralled with this conversation. It was like looking at a bad car accident. I should hang up, but I really didn’t want to.
“But what?”
“I’ll warn you, Mr. Payne. As much as I think my Morgana is sweet, when it comes to men, she can be a bit of trouble. She’s like a shrew in the Shakespearian sense. She needs to be tamed. No man has conquered her Himalaya, if you know what I mean.”
“Yes, Ms. Drake—”
“It’s Ms. Austin.”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Ms. Austin. You are right. You have a very beautiful granddaughter, and it is my duty to see she is well cared for. Thank you for pointing this out. I look forward to meeting you. Good-bye.”
Ms. Drake was a virgin? She couldn’t have been, could she? How has no man climbed her Himalaya, I mean, took her to bed? Were they all blind?
I walked to her, intending only to give her the phone back and then he
ad upstairs to get Edgar. Only that didn’t happen.
FIVE
Morgana’s Problem
Her Boss
“You’re my assistant.”
Mr. Payne kept repeating those words but his hands told a very different story. Especially when he lifted me and my skirt, onto my desk.
His glacial blue eyes melted into a deep ocean and I almost drowned. It wasn’t the pull that was so great I felt it the moment I walked in his office several weeks ago for my interview.
That didn’t have me gasp and turn into a helpless nothing as his fingers slid over my flimsy blouse. It was how he looked at me.
There was an ache behind his gaze. One of longing and something much darker. He hid it well with the ill-tempered wall he built around himself everyday but it only made me curious. Itching to pick away at it. Like he was at my tiny shell buttons.
I hoped when I started working here this attraction, this erotic fascination I had for my boss would be tempered by his dictatorial nature. But the opposite happened. The more he pushed me away, the greedier I became for any scrap he threw my way.
“If you touch me, I don’t know if I will be able to stop myself. You—” Henrik said, his hand grabbing my wrist and pulling it away.
I couldn’t help myself. But he stopped me anyway. The little I did feel, the softness of his shirt hid a very hard chest. It felt like cloth draped over smooth rock.
That curiosity crept back and I bit my lip wondering what hid under that suit. Thoughts that I knew I shouldn’t be having if I ever wanted to keep this job.
I finally got the job I had been wishing for and each day I was tempted by the devil himself, Henrik Payne. As much as the ache between my legs begged for more I couldn’t help but think that this man, this job would change everything. And I might not enjoy the outcome.
“Let me guess, Morgana, you like a little foreplay and feel lucky if the guy gives you sweet kisses all over that pretty pussy of yours?” Henrik’s eyes sparkled with heat and hesitation.
Rules of Payne (Cake Love Book 1) Page 3