by Helena Vera
Mr. Cavil lets go of my jaw and move over to the buttons to respond. “The elevator is fine,” he announces and release the button for the elevator to continue its short descent.
I breathe a sigh of relief when the doors open but huddle in my corner, waiting for him to step out first. I could still feel the impression of his hand on my cheek, my nostrils plugged with his natural musky scent mingled with his cologne.
“I expect to see you at six tomorrow Joyce.”
“Six?” I echo. Work didn’t begin until seven.
“Yes, at six.” He turns slightly to the left so he could look back at me. “One more thing, you’ll find I’m not so easily please as Cavil obviously is.”
He gives my body a once over and smirks before stepping out of the elevator. Confused, I rush towards through the doors before the elevator could close with me inside. What is wrong with that man? Am I going to have to work with a lunatic? Why had he grabbed my chin like that? Doesn’t he know anything about personal space because he’d invaded mine and without my permission. Is this what I will have to deal with working for him? Because this isn’t what I’d signed up for when I decided to work at Cavil.
“Are you okay?” Sandra asks in concern when I got to her desk. “Word has it you were stuck in the elevator.”
“I- I’m fine,” I respond which is a complete lie.
“Although who wouldn’t want to be stuck in an elevator with a man like that?” she gushes. “Talk about yum. Even at thirty-eight weeks pregnant, I can appreciate a man like that.”
“You know him?” I fish for information, taking the letters and package she hands over to me.
“I’m surprised you don’t,” she replied. “But then, you’re not originally from Michigan, are you?”
“No, I’m not. And Mr. Ash?” I press.
“Only the most sought after bachelor in Michigan. Did I mention he is a billionaire? You should see the women he usually goes out with. If you open any society page, I’m telling you, there’s a photo of Axel Ash.”
The society pages? No wonder I don’t know him. I don’t usually read that trash. I want to pry and find out as much as I can about the ma Axel Ash but I don’t dare to bring it up more and raise Sandra’s suspicion. Not that there is anything to be suspicious about.
“I wonder what he was doing here,” Sandra muses aloud. “Do you know?” Then she gasps. “He’s not taking over Cavil’s, is he? Because he’s famous for that you know? Taking over small companies and upscaling it and its profits. They say he has the golden touch and I’m inclined to agree.”
The dreamy look on her face leaves little to the imagination as to what she means by Mr. Ash’s golden touch. Someone must be spreading rumors because his grip of my jaw in the elevator, that had been no golden touch. It was the very opposite.
“I’m sure Mr. Cavil will announce if such a thing is happening,” I hedge. “Gotta run.”
I start to head for the elevator then take a detour to the stairs, walking the three flights. After almost being assaulted by that man and for no reason at all, I am not ready to face the elevator so soon.
After opening the mails, I bring them in a pile to Mr. Cavil’s office for him to tend to them.
“I suppose this is the last time I’ll be getting my mails here,” he announces with a sad smile. “I’ll leave a forward address with you Joyce and if it’s not too much trouble, could you forward any personal mails to me?”
“Sure will Mr. Cavil.”
I am almost at the door leaving when his voice stops me in my tracks.
“Joyce,” he said almost hesitantly.
“Yes sir?”
“You may find Mr. Ash to be different in his approach from me,” he states plainly. “He is a most unorthodox man but he has a record for turning profits. You’ll be working for a very big publishing house soon. If anyone can turn this place around, he can.”
Hmm, why do I have a feeling there is much more he wants to say that he isn’t?
“Okay.”
“And, he’s asked about you.”
So that is it. “Me? Why?”
He retreats looking almost regretful that he has said anything. “Ah it’s nothing I suppose. Just a man ensuring he knows his new staff.”
“Mr. Cavil,” I respond in concern. “Is there something you’re not telling me?”
He shakes his head in denial. “Everything is fine, Joyce. Mr. Ash will take care of everything.”
Including me? I shiver remembering how he invaded my space, remembering his breath hot on my cheek with him standing so close to me. For the rest of the day, I work quietly, my mind occupied with some serious thoughts. Thoughts of handing in my resignation. But should I allow the actions of one man to force me out of a job? But Axel Ash isn’t your average man and I’d rather have peace of mind than being in a job and miserable.
Mr. Cavil calls a meeting at four and informs the staff it is his last day. I knew when he did there would be waterworks. He is an amazing boss, the type who remembers everyone’s birthday and buys them presents. After the meeting, everyone files out in a somber mood, kind of the way I feel.
At five, I give Mr. Cavil a final goodbye and leave work, happy to go home but nervous about returning tomorrow. By the time I get home in my little Subaru, I had convinced myself that I am going to quit. I am bad with controlling men and Mr. Ash showed me today he has no qualms with walking over people. I would find another job.
“Jess, you’ll never believe this!” I announce, walking into the apartment I share with my best friend Jessica. I stop short to find Jessica doing— no, make that trying to do yoga but I could have told her there was no way she is going to get her leg in the same position of the woman on the television.
Jessica has been my best friend and roommate since college. It had been natural for us to continue the living arrangements when we both graduated. Splitting rent and utility bills are way easier than struggling with the bills all alone.
Now Jessica could make a Miss World contestant. She is stunning with long platinum gold hair and bright blue eyes. Her skin is flawless and her dimples leave a string of men in her wake. She is quite tall for a woman and svelte with D-cups where I still am stuck at a B. Her profession as a teacher is a bit challenging since she works at a high school and has to deal with horny teenage boys crushing on her.
“You’re never going to believe about my day at work,” I tell her.
“Shhh,” she silences me, her tongue peeking out from the corner of her lips as she try again to get one leg in an awkward position in the air. Impatiently, I walk over and with a tiny push pitches her over in a heap on the floor
“I almost had it!” she cries out in irritation. “You made me lose my balance.”
“The only thing you almost did was to break your neck,” I tell her. “Now, will you listen to me. You know by next week yoga will be a thing of the past anyway.”
She knows I am right. Except for her passion for teaching, Jessica has no drive to settle for one thing. Including boyfriends. Last week she had taken up jogging. This week it is yoga. No telling what next week will be.
“Maye you’re right,” she concedes and turns off the TV. “What was so exciting about work that you came in here bellowing? Nothing exciting ever happens at work. Don’t tell me Sandra went into labor at work.”
“How I wish that was it!” I exclaim, flopping down on the couch beside her, lying with my head in her lap. We are very close friends and very little get us uncomfortable around each other. “I no longer work for Mr. Cavil.”
“You got fired!” she exclaims in surprise.
“Of course not but he sold the company.”
“That means new boss, huh?” she predicts. “Who knows? Maybe this time you’ll end up with a sexy, millionaire boss who falls madly in love with his new assistant and makes a woman out of her.”
I scowl up at her grin. “Someone’s been watching Young and Hungry again,” I state. “This is not fictional Gabi a
nd Josh. This is real life and I’m not going to end up sleeping with my boss the day we meet.”
“No kidding. You’re not that slutty.”
“Also because we’ve already met,” I inform her. “And I’m not sure I want a job at Cavil’s— excuse I mean at Ash’s tomorrow. The man is horrendous.”
“Uh oh. What did he do? You get along with everybody. I’m the one with the bitch fit.”
I bring her up to speed about running into him while texting my grandmother and at that point she stops me.
“Hold up, you’re grandma is like a hundred. What do you mean text her?”
“I taught her how to send a text the last time I was with her,” I explained. “She sent me a text first. Anyway we are straying from the point here. The man acted as if I am not allowed to use my phone in the lunch break. And guess what he did next?”
“You know I can’t guess so why don’t you tell me?”
“We were riding the elevator and he pressed the emergency stop button, trapping us inside.”
“Then he had his wicked way with you?”
I remove my head from her lap and sit up, frowning at her. “Will you be serious for one minute? The man gripped my jaw and basically threaten my job ‘if I don’t perform up to his standards’.” I add air quotes with my hands.
“What? He threatened you?”
“I take it as a threat,” I reply. “And I don’t take kindly to him doing that. Next thing, he’ll think he can boss me around. I’m taking up for myself and I’m quitting.”
“Whoa sweetheart, isn’t that a little bit extreme?”
I shake my head vehemently. “Nope, not at all. Don’t worry about the rent. You know I hardly spend. I’ve enough to keep up my end of the payments until I get a new job. Didn’t you say the school you work at wants an Arts teacher?”
“It’s already filled,” Jessica answers fretfully. “Maybe he had a bad day and working for him won’t be as bad as today.”
“I know that sort of man and I’m not going to sit around and wait for him to fire me. I’d rather quit first.”
And I mean it too. I better get started at job hunting.
3
CHAPTER
“What are you doing up so early?” Jessica asks on a yawn as she walks into the kitchen. Her eyes widen as she takes in my already dressed state. Today I am wearing a flattering belted, button-front dress with broken elbow-length sleeves. Low heeled black pumps along with a pair of sheer black stockings complete the look. My hair is hanging about my face and shoulders in a wave of curls.
“Whoa, did I miss daylight saving time or something?” she adds checking the time on the kitchen clock. “Why are you dressed for work already and I thought you said you were quitting?”
“I am,” I answer, getting an apple from the fridge to munch on. I am on a mission to reach the office long before six and leave my resignation letter on Mr. Ash’s desk before he gets in. “I’m just dropping off my resignation letter effective immediately.”
Her eyes travel back to the clock. “At ten minutes to five in the morning?”
“Yup. Call it the coward’s way out.”
She gives my outfit another suspicious look. “If you’re reigning why are you dressed to kill this morning? Looks like you even took time to wield the curling iron. At what time did you actually get up to have this all done?”
I blush and look away. How do I explain that even though I don’t plan to run into Mr. Ash, if I do, I want to look my very best? It’s not about wanting to be noticed by my insufferable boss, I convince myself. Why would I want attention from that bully?
“Just going out with a bang,” I reply and jiggle my car keys at her. “Gotta go. I’ll have dinner ready this evening since I’ll be home before you for once!”
“Hmm, I think I like that idea,” Jessica grin. “You can be the housewife for a change while I bring home the bacon.”
“You can’t cater to my expensive tastes,” I return swooping my handbag over my shoulder. As a teacher, Jessica gets out at three and is normally home before me which means she usually has dinner ready by the time I arrive.
The drive from the apartment to the office is nerve-wracking. I have to modulate my breathing over the final five minutes or so but it still doesn’t help as I park my car. I’m relieved to find only a few cars parked in the lot. What is wrong with these people? Always the first to be at work and the last to leave? I don’t have much of a life beyond work and I wouldn’t be caught coming to work at this hours.
My resignation letter in hand, I enter the building, greeting the security guard. After two years working at Cavil’s I know all the different security guards that who come on duty but I didn’t recognize this guy. I have to show him my work ID for him to be satisfied I am an employee. Is this what Mr. Cavil meant by Mr. Ash improving the publishing company? How much is he going to change about this place? Thank God, I wouldn’t be sticking around to find out.
“You’re here very early today,” he comments suspiciously.
“Just dropping off something for the CEO,” I explain, waving the envelope for him to see.
“You can leave it here at the front desk,” he states with a smile now that he no longer suspects me of wrong doing.
“No, it’s fine. I work for him and have an office key. I will just pop in and leave it on his desk and be out of here in five.”
He nods and I take the elevator to the top floor. The office is eerily quiet. I walk by my desk and feel a pang in my chest. Two years of work and leaving all because of this man. I remove an empty box we’d gotten stationary in and removing the lid, start to place my things inside. Photograph of my grandmother, the last photograph I have of my mom before she died of a brain aneurism. The last photo is of me and Jessica at graduation. I place other random items I’d bought from pocket in the box as well, sticky notes, notepads, stapler, punch, colored pens. I plan to leave nothing behind.
Everything placed in the box, I take another look around. This is my first real job and I’m nostalgic that I will have to leave. I shake off the feeling and try to think positive. Maybe I could focus on using my Art degree. That’s what I would do and forget about Cavils’. I keep forgetting, Ash’s. I would forget about Ash’s Publishing and Axel Ash and start a new life for myself.
I push the office door open and walk over to the empty desk. Mr. Cavil must have worked very late yesterday to clear the out the office. I place the envelope on the desk ensuring it is the right way up with the words “To Whom It May Concern” written clearly in my neat handwriting at the front.
I notice too late the briefcase placed on the chair around the desk. My eyes widen in panic and I start to back away at the same time the door to the private bathroom open and Axel Ash walks out wearing nothing but a pair of black pants and shoes. I gape at his muscled bare chest, void of hair except for a thin line running down the center and disappearing into the waistband of his trousers. I don’t know where to look, taking in his broad shoulders, the flat male nipples, the well-sculpted six pack.
Heat suffuses not only my cheek by my entire body. My nipples pucker in a state of arousal which pooled in wetness between my legs. I am embarrassed at the way he makes me feel, not used to such raw emotions inside me. I’ve always thought of myself as not a highly-sexed individual. I rarely get the urge to have sex but looking at Axel Ash, he makes me very conscious of myself as a sexual woman being confronted by a very virile man.
At the same time I am embarrassed, I can’t help being curious. What would it feel like to run my fingers tentatively along the ridges of the hard chest? Would his nipples get all hard and sensitive like mine when he is aroused? My eyes follow that trail of hair again and as much as my brain screams to look away, I disobey and find myself eying his crotch. Is he aroused too or is the material of his pants just close-fitting? I could make out the shape of his manhood pressed against the flap of his zipper.
I swallow hard, a trickle of sweat cracking through the fo
undation of my makeup. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth and my feet would not listen to my brain to run and get the hell out of there. I have nothing to say to him that isn’t in the letter.
A look of surprise crosses his features before he recovers and take control of the situation. His lengthy strides bring him closer and that delicious tempted to touch chest of his. Don’t come any closer! I want to scream but with the discovery of how wet I could get by just staring at a man’s chest, comes the loss of my ability to form words.
He grasps me by the shoulder, once more invading my personal space without my permission.
“What are you doing here?” he demands, his blue eyes flashing shards of ice.
“I- I-I,” I stammer like an idiot. I can imagine how dumb I must look peering up at him, my eyes opened wide, tongue-tied.
“Well, spit it out already,” he orders and gives me a little shake.
It’s that little shake that did it, made me pale even worse and my brain scatter. He looks furious and fear takes hold of me and what he can do to me with his strength.
“No daddy, leave mommy alone!”
“Joyce baby, go to your room.”
“No, mommy. Daddy please, please don’t hit mommy.”
“Then you’ll get it.”
I flinch at the memory of being backhanded into the wall. And I almost faint. My body sag and I would have fallen to the ground if not for Mr. Ash holding onto me and supporting my weight.
“Don’t try that fainting bit on me,” he grounds out in exasperation. “It might have worked with Cavil but it sure as hell won’t work on me. What are you doing here so early? I told you six and it’s barely past five.”
I straighten my spine, pushing the memories of my childhood away. “I- I wanted to be here early,” I lie, afraid of what he would do if he finds out the truth while I’m still around.
“You’re lying,” he says, pushing his face close to mine. I can smell the woodsy scent of his aftershave. It makes him seem wild.
“I’m not lying,” I protest.
“Prove it.”
“You tell me to be here at six. Is it a crime to want to come in early to impress the new boss?”