by Axl Goode
Greeting her politely, he tried to hide his enthusiasm. After swapping pleasantries, they continued their journey to the elevator. Making sure he was a step behind, he looked at her full figure from the back, watching the way her hips swayed.
Damn her ass looks amazing. This is so weird. I don’t even like girls who wear dress pants and for some reason all I can think about is ripping them off. I wonder what color her thong is. Would she be wearing a thong or boy shorts? Screw it, she would look sexy as hell in either. Or neither for that matter. Shit. Focus. Make a good impression.
His palms started to sweat and his breathing sped up as he walked.He was curious where she was going out tonight but she deflected his question. Instead she gloated about going out with the lame guys he saw at the bar. Brushing his hair behind his right ear, he tried to stay focused on the conversation. He was being distracted by staring into her ice-blue eyes. Something about her just threw him.
As the elevator started moving he tried once more to discern why she had such a grudge against him. Rather than be subtle, he chose to directly ask her why she disliked him. Brenley started rattling off all her presumptions about him. Incredulous, Zane couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Facing her directly, his heart hammered heavily in his chest. He wasn’t sure if it was from anger or excitement.
Watching her delicious-looking lips move as she spoke was driving him insane. Suddenly, he reacted without even thinking. Shoving her up against the wall, their faces were centimeters apart. Her breath was hot and sweet.
Looking down into her alluring eyes stirred a feeling deep inside him he had never experienced before. He wanted her. He wanted her so much it hurt. He tried to impart everything he was feeling in that look. Surprisingly, she held his gaze without pulling away.
Before he could stop himself, he kissed her soft lips. She tasted like the sweetest thing in the world. It wasn’t a long embrace but it felt incredibly passionate. His cock was throbbing, manifesting his desire. He felt precum leaking unbidden from the tip.
The elevator came to a stop on his floor. Running his hand down her torso, he broke away from her. Turning, he walked out of the elevator and to the right with his head still spinning.
Holy shit! What did I just do? Am I dreaming or did she want to kiss me as much as I’ve wanted to kiss her? Damn that was hot! Note to self—don’t ever do that again.
His entire body shook from the excitement. He shoved his hands in his pockets trying to hide his arousal as people passed him in the hall. Waiting for what seemed like forever for it to dissipate, he finally made his way to James’s room.
He wasn’t sure how he would ever walk into the bank where she worked again. For that matter, he didn’t care. He took another sip of his drink. Her attitude toward him caused his jaw to clench. There are plenty of things she doesn’t know about me still. Who is she to judge? He knew he had lost control of himself in the elevator, yet he still had a euphoric feeling pulsing through his body. He thought kissing her would satiate his need. Somehow, alleviate the thoughts he was having about her constantly, especially after the incident at the bank. He was wrong. He could feel his entire being wanting her even more now.
Chapter Four
Sitting in her office on Monday morning, Brenley considered the events of the previous weekend. It had taken a drastic turn on Saturday night after she ran into Zane Anthony. She and Megan ended up going out with the guys at the bar. They turned out to be douchebags and seemed dull in comparison to the fiery kiss in the elevator.
It had been the most exhilarating thing that happened to her in years. Or ever, for that matter. Zane had taken her completely by surprise, arousing her in a way she didn’t think was possible. Now she couldn’t stop thinking about it. Realizing she was touching herself under her desk, she had to consciously stop and try to refocus on her work.
Brenley didn’t actually have very much work to do. She had systems in place to give her notifications on her investments and only spent a few hours a day actually tracking her current or future investments. She was one of those people who liked to stay busy at work, feeling the need to put in at least an eight-hour day, so she occupied her time by endlessly checking her email and reorganizing things to give herself a sense of accomplishment.
Deciding to go ahead and get all her work out of the way, she got to it. After finishing around two o’clock she could hardly focus any longer. As she was just about to do something unusual and leave early, a messenger walked in.
“Hi, I’m with the postal service. Are you Brenley Meyers?”
“Yes. I wasn’t expecting any deliveries today though,” she replied, a bit agitated that something had popped up as she was about to bolt.
“Well it’s nothing big, just a certified letter and doesn’t feel like much. Just sign here for me please?” Handing her a clipboard with a pen, he left her little choice. Signing her name quickly, she thanked the messenger and opened the letter as soon as he left her office. Reading it twice she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
Brenley Meyers
Your client Duane Frederickson is investing illegal funds with you. He plans to frame you to take the blame if his scheme is uncovered. If anyone finds out about this letter you will be in extreme danger. Do the right thing.
Anonymously on your side
This is the most absurd thing I have ever heard. There’s no way that could be possible.
Duane Frederickson had no reason to invest illegal funds nor did he have that sort of reputation. Actually, she thought, his record is impeccable.
Brenley admitted she didn’t know his entire life story. However, she did know that he was the mayor of Dallas and the best one in a long while. Crime had dropped, and the overall city’s economy had vastly improved.
Frederickson had been a well-known businessman before ever entering politics. He was a self-made multimillionaire. He used shrewd tactics and was very matter-of-fact, never leaving anything up to the imagination about what he thought. More than anything, he was known for generating results. Through a series of deals buying and selling companies, he slowly amassed a pristine reputation for turning a business around when no one else could. That made him the perfect mayor. He took the city and improved it beyond what anyone else thought possible. So with such an immaculate track record, why would he have to invest illegal funds?
Why would he even need to, Brenley pondered.
With a few hours to kill, Brenley changed her mind about leaving, deciding to do a little research on the mayor first. Although she didn’t think there was actually anything to this, it never hurt to double-check. Not to mention someone did go to the trouble of sending her a certified letter and knew that Frederickson invested with her.
This didn’t surprise her though, considering that he was her biggest and oldest client. He had sent plenty of others her way after she demonstrated exceptional results.
Pulling up her internet browser she went to her search engine and typed in “Duane Frederickson” with quotations to make sure the results included both names together. Checking the number of results, she realized the engine pulled up sixty thousand hits.
Fantastic, this is going to take all day!
After spending several hours researching, she had come up with a grand total of…nothing.
The man is impeccable, she thought. Of course people described him as an intense person, which she knew full well he was. But so was she. They got along great because of their no-nonsense personalities and each served a certain purpose in the other’s life.
He provided the capital, she provided a service and they both made money from that mutual contract. As a last thought, she did an audit of his bank records at Bank of Dallas. She was positive he had plenty of other accounts but decided to check for any irregularities as a final precaution. Looking through his accounts, everything seemed to be in order with a regular automatic deposit every Thursday. She knew she could be breaking his privacy by going through his records without his permission.
However, she reasoned he was also her client and would probably be accepting of her thoroughness.
Having completed what she felt like was a thorough enough investigation for the day she decided to finally head home. Gathering her things, Brenley left her office a little early still, happy to have not turned up anything of significance.
After going to the gym and grocery shopping, Brenley went home to her apartment. It was in a nice upscale part of town and had a sleek modern design. The appliances were all new and progressive stainless steel. Her living room housed a flat-screen TV mounted on the wall flanked by bookshelves. Only one shelf was filled with DVDs as the rest were crammed full of books. Pictures of Brenley with her family and friends were scattered on the walls. A large cream colored sofa sat against the back wall with her favorite bowl chair off to the side. Brenley found it very cozy. Normally she would read but tonight she was feeling a bit outside her normal mood, so she turned on a movie through online streaming. She rarely watched TV or movies but did enjoy them on certain occasions.
What Brenley really loved was romantic comedies. Unfortunately she was just picky enough that there weren’t many up to her specifications. Turning on one that looked good, she curled up in her bowl chair. About halfway through the movie, seemingly out of nowhere, Zane popped onto the screen. Woah. Her heart jumped.
So much for falling asleep.
Her heart pounded in nervous anticipation. She hadn’t even been aware he was in this movie, but there he was, best friend to the lead character. She thought he must have been younger when he did this role because he looked substantially different.
He was still handsome though. Gorgeous if she was being truthful with herself. Actually, she couldn’t figure out how he had been cast as the best friend. His physical domination was all she could see. Calm, smooth, confident. He radiated superiority.
He is everything a man should be, she thought. He looked like he didn’t budge who he was for anyone. Even though he didn’t seem compromising, she also got the feeling that he was extremely dedicated.
It was odd, that she overlooked all those traits before. She had been certain he was only a pretty face. Although he did have a pretty face, she now had a hunch he was much more than that. She wasn’t sure why she felt so convinced of her hunch but there was an undying certainty that Zane was very different from her previous impressions of him.
God, he is beautiful. Without realizing it was happening, she suddenly found herself rubbing her sex with slow waves of pleasure tracing their way through her body as she watched Zane on the screen. Stretching out a little, she allowed herself to relax more and fell into a comfortable, slow rhythm. Right as she was beginning to get close,there was a scene change and Zane was gone from the screen.
Damn. What am I thinking? she chided herself and the mood was totally gone so she flipped the movie off, deciding to go to sleep. She could never be with him, nor could he ever be with her, so she should quit wasting her time. Yet as she moved on to the couch, she thought about him kissing her in the elevator. The sweet taste of his lips returned to her mouth. He must be attracted to me though, right? Why else would he kiss me? It doesn’t matter. Even if I did admit that I’m attracted to him what then? I’d be his fling for a few weeks then he’d move on to another supermodel. No. The only way it would end between us is with me getting hurt and I’m not doing that. I’m better than that and deserve to be more than someone’s fling.
He was not a safe bet at all and she knew better.
Chapter Five
Greg McNally sat at his desk Thursday morning, contemplating the state of his bank. It had done extremely well, running like a well-oiled machine and surpassing all his expectations in both the volume of business it did as well as the quality of the people who staffed it. They were undoubtedly the finest team he had ever managed, easily completing workloads that would take twice as many normal personnel but also providing outstanding customer satisfaction.
He had just received a troubling call from Duane Frederickson. Frederickson thought someone at the bank might be tampering with his accounts. He said the system had kicked him off while checking his accounts a few nights ago, citing a log-in from another location.
The scenario disturbed Greg for several reasons. First, there was no way Frederickson would have been kicked off his accounts page if someone from the bank were monitoring his accounts. That process would be done from inside the system and wouldn’t cause any disturbance with his account outside the system. Second, he did not know why the mayor would assume that it was someone at the bank. It could easily be another party that had obtained his information or hacked his account.
The last part was the most unusual though. His lead employee, Brenley Meyers, had spent several hours perusing Frederickson’s accounts and downloading all his statements for the last five years. That was a direct violation of internal policy.
Greg knew that Frederickson was one of her clients, which gave her certain privileges to access his accounts, but only for the scope of investment purposes. She had clearly overstepped her boundaries but he wasn’t sure for what reason. The bank’s policy was very clear about client privacy. Although he didn’t see any explicit tampering, there was a clear breach of policy here.
Greg McNally was a by-the-books kind of guy. He was an accountant by trade, having worked in a public accounting firm for years before getting into management. He had worked for Bank of Dallas with his firm. When he received a job offer from the bank he hadn’t been able to refuse. He now held substantial stock in the company, expanding it aggressively until there were multiple locations, and increasing their investing base exponentially. He had a very dry personality by nature, lacking the sense of humor most people possessed. This served him well in business though, allowing him to stay focused and on track.
He decided it was in the best interest of the bank for him to go have a chat with Brenley. He wanted to see if she had a good reason for violating the bank’s rules. Greg liked Brenley. She was his favorite employee by far. She always showed up on time, did her work and ultimately made the bank huge amounts of money. Stepping out of his office, he strolled around to the opposite side of the bank, giving her door a brief knock before stepping inside.
“Good morning, Brenley,” he said as he took a seat in one of her chairs.
“Good morning, Greg. How are you? Ready for the weekend?” she replied as she looked up from the papers scattering her desk.
“I’m alright but definitely ready for the weekend. I have some gardening I’d like to catch up on and the weather is supposed to be perfect. How about yourself?”
“I’m good. Just looking over some new investments I might start trading in. I’m not doing much this weekend, probably just relaxing and doing some reading. You look like you have something on your mind. What can I do for you today?”
“Well…I received a call from the mayor just a little while ago. He is saying he was kicked off his system the other night and he thought it was because someone here at the bank logged in to his account. I assured him that even if someone here were reviewing his account, it wouldn’t kick him off like that. He seemed quite insistent that someone was, so I told him I would check. When I looked at who accessed his accounts recently I saw that you spent several hours on Monday looking over his history for the last five years. Do you mind explaining why you were viewing his materials and more importantly, how he would know that you were?”
Brenley’s face visibly whitened, then turned a little red. Greg didn’t think she was prepared for someone to notice her snooping. Fidgeting in her seat, she composed herself before responding.
“I have no idea how he would know that I was reviewing his history here. That’s actually quite disturbing.” Brenley cleared her throat before continuing. “As for why I was looking at his accounts, I wanted to check his history with the bank. I was thinking of proposing some new investments to him that would be riskier than normal but also potentially yield a high return. I wanted to k
now if he had the stability to weather that sort of uncertainty. Rather than seek permission when it may not even be applicable, I thought I would just check over his materials.”
“Well you know it violates our policy to do that without obtaining my consent first. But I’m sure you just got enthusiastic and forgot,” he responded, completely letting her off the hook. He wasn’t about to antagonize his best employee too much over something this trivial.
“I’ll let you get back to work here. I know you have lots to do,” Greg said standing.
“Always, I’m afraid,” Brenley said, smiling. “Good luck gardening this weekend.”
Chuckling he responded, “It’s going to be fun. Try not to work all weekend.” Leaving Brenley’s office, Greg’s thoughts had already moved to the next thing on his agenda for the day.
* * * * *
After Greg left Brenley’s office, she looked back down at her papers for a few minutes before coming to a complete mental halt.
What had just happened?
There were things here that were not adding up at all. Suddenly, she felt very alone and unsafe. How had Frederickson known that she had looked at his account? The only person who was authorized to access a log of who viewed different accounts was Greg.
Not only had someone known that she reviewed his accounts, they also had given him the information. Frederickson had personally called the bank manager and complained under the guise of getting kicked off his account while checking his balances. Immediately, the note she had received a few days ago came to mind.