by Mia Archer
"What's the problem?" I asked.
"Well we were doing the whole boss and intern thing before," she said. "That was pretty damn hot, only I'm not the boss anymore. You certainly don't seem to be the intern anymore if you're handling hiring meetings with your dad."
I grinned. "You're right. What if we did the middle manager and the CEO’s daughter? Would that be just as hot?"
Nicole smiled and stood. Came around the table even as my heart felt like it was going to beat right out of my chest. She plopped down in the seat that had been so recently vacated by my father. I was painfully aware of her. The feel of her. I was filled with visions of that last night we'd spent together. Some of the things we'd done. How inexperienced she was, and yet eager at the same time. An eagerness that more than made up for any deficiency she might have seeing as how that was the first time she'd ever been with a girl.
She'd certainly figured things out fast enough. Those memories were enough to heat me up even if she wasn’t sitting right next to me. With her right there, though, the distraction was incredible even as the sexual tension growing in the room was palpable.
"I don't know…" Nicole said. She reached a hand out and trailed along my arm. I shivered. "Aren't there rules about dating employees? Would we be risking getting in trouble?"
She leaned in closer. So close. Her breath caressed my ear. It sent a thrill running straight from my ear down to my pussy. A thrill that was more powerful than some of the feelings I'd gotten over the years from girls who were giving me far more direct attention. Fuck!
I turned to face her. Nicole had a sexy mock pout on her face. "Wouldn’t that make your dad upset if he found out we were carrying on again?"
I grinned. "Turns out that at a certain point those rules are more guidelines than actual rules.”
"Oh yeah? And when did this change?"
"The moment I decided to take control and change them."
Nicole scooted forward. She kissed the corner of my lips and I shuddered. A thin strip of cloth. A curtain. That was all that separated us from the rest of the world. All that separated us from an increasing crowd of diners coming in to enjoy their lunch, if the noise filtering through that curtain was any indication.
Not that I was particularly worried about the country club trying to kick us out or anything. The company did enough of business with the place that we were practically keeping them afloat. I was the last person they’d try to kick out, though at the same time I realized that I should probably stop thinking like that. That was some of the spoiled rich girl stuff that pissed Nicole off so much. The sort of thing that had very nearly lost her for me.
Only it was so hard to think of anything as she moved her fingers down. Traced them down in between my breasts. I took in a sharp breath.
"Someone might catch us," I said, even though I knew there probably wasn't much chance of that.
"So? Let them catch us. I've been thinking about that night for the past week, and I need more of it."
She finished off that thought by leaning in and kissing me. A moment later she threw her legs over mine and I was running my hands all over her while at the same time trying my very hardest not to knock her against the table and send plates and silverware clattering. It was difficult. There really wasn't all that much room in this private dining area.
Not that I cared. All that mattered was that I had Nicole. She was mine again. Sure we were still early days, but we'd navigated our first major slipup. And boy had it been one hell of a slipup.
Still, the future was looking better with every passing moment. Though I was quickly distracted from thoughts of the future by thoughts of the present. Particularly thoughts about how to keep quiet and prevent the rest of the country club from and knowing exactly what was going on behind curtain number one. The sort of thing that would cause a scandal that would have me back in the doghouse with dear old dad for years to come.
So best to try and keep quiet. That took up my concentration for a good little while as we finished going over some of Nicole’s more interesting qualifications for her new position.
22: New Boss
"This is entirely too much work," Christine said.
I took a moment to relish this exchange. The view from her desk was nice. Though of course it wasn't her desk anymore. No, this was my desk now. My department. My floor. All of it was mine, as far as the eye could see.
And it didn't look like I was in any danger of losing it any time soon. Sure I had friends in high places. Very high places, now that Erica had completed her degree and she was working full-time up on one of the top floors. But more than anything, I was delivering results. The kind of results that hadn't been seen in quite a long time.
I'd like to take full credit for that, but to be perfectly honest a big part of it was simply that people worked a lot harder when they were working for a boss who obviously cared about them. Someone who didn't reign through terror. And so productivity had increased just by virtue of Christine no longer being the one in charge.
I smiled. I tried to make it my best and most winning smile. I knew that with her I needed to be nicer than with anyone else. I didn't want to worry about her coming back with a lawsuit saying that I gave her preferential treatment. Even if "preferential treatment" in this case was giving her the same sort of treatment she'd given me for two years.
"Now Christine. You know I don't have you doing anything that wasn't being done by your predecessor."
Oh yes. It was so easy to smile. Because her predecessor was me, of course, and I was doing nothing less than providing her with the very same workload she'd given me. And I knew there was nothing she could say about it. If she decided to come back after the company it would be trivially easy to provide records showing what I'd done before my position change and what was expected of her.
Christine was finally doing the work that was expected of her. All of it was triple checked by other people, of course. I didn't trust her any farther than I could throw her. But thanks to the productivity gains on the floor, coupled with a burning desire that a lot of people had for some reason to double check her work, all of that was still getting done in record time even making allowances for the occasional mistake. Whether those were deliberate or not was up to interpretation, but I figured I would give her the benefit of the doubt. That meant I didn't have to fire her. Firing her would mean an end to the fun.
"I hate you," Christine said.
"Now Christine," I said. "This is the kind of thing we've already talked about. You have to use your words, but they have to be professional."
I glanced down to the recorder on the desk in between us. Its red light blinked happily away. She glanced down as well and her lips thinned. She knew exactly what that meant. She'd just slipped up on tape.
Yeah, I wasn't giving this bitch an inch of wiggle room now that I had her in my grasp.
"So are we going to have any more trouble with you meeting your regular work commitments, Christine?"
"No," she growled.
"Great. Glad we had this meeting!"
I turned to my computer. Made a display of pulling up solitaire clicking at the cards. I normally hated this game. I was pretty sure it didn't even come installed on computers anymore. I'd had IT make a special exception for me, and they'd been more than happy to do so when I told them why. Turns out that with the exception of the guy she’d been banging IT hated her just as much as everybody else did.
I continued clicking for a moment before turning back to her and smiling. "Was there something else, Christine?"
A vein throbbed in her forehead. Her teeth were grinding. And it was all I could do not to laugh at the delicious reversal of fortune.
"No. Nothing else," she said.
She stood and walked out. Even managed not to slam the door and send the glass cage around me rattling. That was a big improvement over how she usually acted after one of these meetings. A meeting I was required to have on a biweekly basis to make sure her "rehabilita
tion plan" was going to plan.
So far it was going perfectly. Not that there was a chance in hell that she was ever going to get close to a management position in this company ever again. I think she knew that. I figured it was only a matter of time before she found a new job, but until then she was in my world.
I turned back to my computer and actually pulled up some work. I’d started delegating a hell of a lot more, but doing it more responsibly. Which left me far more time to do the real work a supervisor was supposed to do in this position. Another reason why things had improved so much.
A beep. A message from Amber. I smiled.
“You must’ve really pissed her off that time boss lady. She stormed back to her cube!”
I grinned. “How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me boss lady?”
“As long as it takes for me to stop thanking the heavens that Christine isn’t boss lady anymore.”
Well that could be awhile. I was about to type out a tart response when the door opened again. I sighed and turned, ready to give Christine a piece of my mind for coming back into my office after our meeting was very clearly over. Only it wasn't Christine standing there.
"Damn. That's the kind of look I expected from you back when we first got together," Erica said with a giggle.
I grinned. And I resisted the urge to hop over my desk and push her up against the glass wall. Her expression changed to a frown. A look of commiseration.
"Let me guess. Meeting with Christine?"
"Ding ding," I said.
"Well boy do I have something that will make you feel better!"
My eyes narrowed. She had a devious look on her face. Sure it wasn't a bad devious look, but I'd learned to be on my guard whenever she stared at me like that.
"What did you have in mind?"
"If I told you what it was then it wouldn't be much of a surprise. Now would it?"
I shrugged. I could concede to the logic of that statement, though I still didn't like not knowing what was going on.
"Did you find a new place for lunch or something?" I asked.
"Again, you're just going to have to come with me and find out."
"Come with you? What is this?"
"A surprise!"
"Come on! At least give me a hint?"
Erica shook her head and bit her lip as she smiled. “Uh-uh. No way.”
I was suspicious as we made our way down and out of the building. I was even more suspicious that her town car was waiting for us. I nodded to Jake who I'd gotten to know pretty well over the months we'd been dating. Especially since he was the one who usually had to drive Nicole across town so we could go on our dates. Though I hadn’t seen quite as much of him recently since we ended up spending most of our time over at Erica’s place as things got more and more serious. I figured she’d probably bring up moving in together soon enough.
I didn’t mind staying at her place instead of mine one bit. She'd moved back into her lavish apartment after finishing up her degree.
"So are you going to tell me what the hell is going on here, Jake?"
"Didn't Miss Zeidner tell you back when we first met that I’m the soul of discretion?" he asked.
I sighed. "The two of you are terrible!"
"I aim to please the person paying the checks, ma’am," Jake said.
I stuck my tongue out. He knew how I hated it when he called me ma'am. Though it never stopped him. Still, he was the soul of discretion and a pretty nice guy otherwise.
My suspicions only continued to grow and grow as Jake took us out to the airport. Only instead of going to the usual arrival and departure area we were spirited through a chain-link fence and directly onto the tarmac to a private jet with the Zeidner Corp. logo on the side.
"Erica…"
"Come on," she said.
"Just hop on a private jet with you and go who knows where? I have work to do!"
"That's all taken care of. You have vacation time, and I talked to a couple of people who are going to keep the department running while you're gone. We even have a secure connection to the office and a laptop on the jet if you really feel the urge to do some work, which you're not going to once we get going."
"Where exactly are we going?"
Nicole looked down and her cheeks turned red. "Actually… I was hoping we could celebrate something."
I arched my eyebrows. "What are we celebrating? You already got your new job. My new job is going pretty damn well. Things have been going great with us for the past half a year. What else is there?"
Erica bit her lip. Damn she looked so hot when did that. It made me want to jump her. Though there was Jake to consider. Finally she shook her head and squared her shoulders.
"I'm supposed to be taking command in life now. Well here goes."
"Erica… What are you talking about?"
I was suddenly nervous. Though it was a good nervous. Definitely a butterflies in the stomach kind of nervous rather than the nervous you got right before, say, a breakup. Not that I'd been that kind of nervous with Erica for quite some time. Not since that first blowup had blown over.
My mind was rambling. I needed to get this under control. What the hell was wrong with me? What the hell was going on here, for that matter?
"Nicole? You still with me?"
I shook myself and smiled. "Sorry. My mind was wandering. So what's up?"
"Trust me, I know the feeling," Erica said. And then she surprised me by pulling out a tiny box from a jeweler in the city who I knew for a fact sold ridiculously expensive pieces. I was surprised at my reaction. My hand immediately went into my mouth, and I tingled all over.
"Erica…"
It was about as typical as you could get in terms of reactions.
"Erica, what is that?"
I glanced to the front. To where Jake was doing his best to look like he wasn't at all interested in the drama playing out back here. Not that his best effort was very good, mind you. He obviously knew something was up. If she pulled something sneaky he would've been the one who drove her around to do the sneaking.
"I was just thinking about how well things have been going lately," Erica said. "And I know we've only been together for maybe half a year and it's kind of a whirlwind and everything and this is crazy, but it's legal now and I figured we could have a long engagement and oh God I popped this too soon. I'm such an idiot!"
I reached up and put a finger to her lips. That stopped the word avalanche. I smiled.
"I think there was something you were about to ask me?"
I tingled all over as she squared her shoulders again. As she locked eyes with me. Pulled a giant enormous diamond out of the box and took my hand.
"Nicole, would you marry me? After a suitably long engagement, of course."
"Shut up," I said.
Erica blinked. "Shut up?"
I shook my own head. Now I was the one acting like an idiot. "Sorry. Reacted to the wrong thing first. Of course I will! Yes!"
Erica tackled me. Pushed me back on the seat, and Jake was treated to his first true show since that first drunken night when we'd gotten a little carried away. I still got mortified when I thought of that night. Right now, though, I didn't give a fuck if anyone was watching. We could be right in front of the pope or of the president himself and I wouldn't give a damn. All I wanted was to kiss my fiancée.
My fiancée. That was a crazy thought. I was engaged. To another woman. Shit. I was engaged!
I pulled back. "But we haven't even introduced you to my parents!"
Nicole looked up at Jake and then to the jet.
"Well I was planning on a vacation in either the Caribbean or Vegas, but I suppose we could swing by your house first?"
I gave her hand a squeeze. "You have no idea what you're getting into."
"Why's that? You told them you were dating a girl, right?"
"Well yeah, but telling them I’m dating a girl and having the reality of me dating a girl show up on the doorstep of the ol
d farmhouse are two very different things.”
Erica grinned. "Well now I definitely want to meet the folks!"
Suddenly I felt nervous for a whole different reason. Going home to meet the folks. I looked to the jet. Looked back to Erica. And grinned.
As long as I was with her I could face anything.
"You're right," I said as I took her hand and practically dragged her out of the car. "Let's go!"
More from Mia Archer
There’s more waiting for you! Keep reading for sample chapters from the best selling lesbian romance: Second Chances!
Want to know when I release new sexy stories? Sure you do! Subscribe to the Mia Archer mailing list for all the latest updates and book news!
Sign up at: http://miaarcher.com/subscribe/
Thanks for downloading this story and supporting me! Check out my catalog, all now available on Kindle Unlimited:
The Mia Archer catalog, all your wildest fantasies in one convenient location!
Also by Mia Archer
Novels
Falling in love wasn’t on Amber’s radar. Especially with another woman. Only life and love don’t have to make sense as she explores a new world with a secretive online lover!
Anna and Erin were the best of the best looking for fun in their geeky game of choice, but they’ll discover there’s a thin line between love and competition!
Claire and Allison are star-crossed lovers who get a second chance at their five year reunion!
Night Terror is the greatest villainess in the world, and she has to find a way to defeat sexy new superhero Fialux. Oh, and she’s totally in love with her new archenemy. What could go wrong?