by Jessie Cooke
3
Axel
I have got to remember to send Maggie some flowers…or cash…something to reward her for finding my Anastasia. This girl is perfect. So perfect that I was already on the verge of needing to sit behind my desk so that my erection didn’t scare her off already on the first day. I invited her in and we sat in my office for the first half an hour getting to know each other.
“So how old are you Holly?”
“Twenty –four,” she said. Just right, the perfect age…legal, but not usually too jaded yet.
“Have you lived in New York long?”
“About six years now. I moved here to live with my aunt after I graduated high school. I went to college here and stayed…I love the city.”
“So you still live with your aunt?”
“No, I have my own place now.” Nice.
“Have you ever been married?”
“No,” she said. Then losing a little bit of her shyness she said, “Have you?”
I grinned. “No. I haven’t found the woman yet who is crazy enough to put up with me.”
She smiled too. “My boyfriend and I have talked about it…but neither of us is ready yet.”
That answered my next question…she has a boyfriend. The good news was that he wasn’t a fiancé or a husband and she didn’t live with him. Boyfriends’ come and go. I’m confident that I can make her want him to go.
“That’s very smart of you to wait. People rush into marriage and then all that time and money is wasted later on getting a divorce. What about your parents? Where do they live?”
“In Rhode Island,” she said.
“Brothers or sisters?”
“No, only child.”
“Me too. That’s a good thing too. It makes you more intelligent, I hear.” I winked at her…she blushed. She’s ripe…ready to harvest. I used the time we were talking to take in everything I could about her. She does seem very intelligent and articulate when I can get her to look directly at me and actually talk. I like the little catch in her voice when she talks to me and the way her pretty eyes keep fluttering down to the floor. She would make an amazing bottom. She doesn’t seem to know how desirable she is. I’d be willing to go out on a limb and guess her current boyfriend was either her first…or the one right after she lost her virginity. She blushes when I tease her and there is something just pure and wholesome about her look and her speech…she is like an unmolded lump of clay…and I can’t wait to get my hands covered with it.
Her hair is long, almost to her waist, but she has it pulled back at the nape of her neck in a ponytail. Her skin is white and smooth and she has a tiny little spattering of light brown freckles across the bridge of her nose between two big, brown doe eyes with thick lashes. She hardly wore any make-up at all and she was dressed conservatively in a pale gray skirt and suit jacket with a dark gray silk shirt underneath. The shirt was buttoned up nearly to the top so as not to show any cleavage from what looked to be an amble bosom. Her bottom half is curvy and fills out her knee-length skirt just right. Her look is perfect. Maggie is my hero.
“We should get downstairs to the conference room, I suppose,” I told her. I stood and waited for her to stand and then I followed her out the door. I could tell she was a little self-conscious about walking in front of me and that made her even cuter. I followed her into the elevator and I was in the process of picturing elevator sex against the glass walls when my damned phone rang. I pushed floor ten and as the elevator doors slid closed I put the phone to my ear. “Axel.”
“Mr. Maxwell this is Brian. I need to file that flight plan by four…” Brian is my pilot. I guess I am going to L.A. tonight. I wonder if it’s too soon to ask my little Holly to go with me.
“Damn Brian! I lost my secretary this morning. She must not have sent it over before she left. I have a new girl now though,” I slid my eyes over Holly and she blushed. I’ll have her get it to you before four.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Not a problem.” I hung up and winked at Holly. “I’ve got your first assignment right after we meet with these lunatics.” I realized then that instead of the thirty minutes I’d spent ogling her, the time may have been better spent warning her about Tina and Tammy Belt. These girls are twins and two of the most talented kids I’ve ever taken on. The problem is that they’re also spoiled, petulant, terrible human beings and every time they want something they call a meeting between me, their agent, their Momager and their attorneys and expect me to treat them as if they’re the most important people in the world. I was quickly tiring of it.
The conference room on the tenth floor is the only one in the building even large enough to accommodate them all. When the elevator doors slid opened, I took hold of Holly’s arm and led her towards the conference room. She didn’t pull away…that was a good sign. Her skin was as smooth as it looked. My mouth was practically watering at the thought of peeling that conservative little suit off her. I pushed open the door to the conference room and reality hit me in the face.
Tina and Tammy sat between Mom…a Kris Kardashian wanna be and Dad…and absent drunk who only showed back up after the girls’ first single went platinum in a day. The parents were each flanked by an attorney and their manager who I hated and their agent who I had sex with in my office last week stood in the back. They were all on one side of the table…showing a united front, maybe?
“Well, the gang is all here. How the hell is everyone?” Not a single one of them said a word. I acted like they had and said, “That’s great, this is my new assistant, Holly.” Still not a word. Poor Holly’s already large eyes were rounder than ever. I pulled out a chair for her and she sat down with her little pad. That’s so cute. I’ll have to make sure she knows where to get some modern-day equipment before I leave for L.A. I sat down next to Holly and said, “I’m sorry to do this, but I have about twenty minutes….”
Tammy rolled her eyes and Tina said, “That’s more than we’re used to.”
“Why do I feel so much hostility in this room?”
“Because we found out this week that our royalties from Apple music have all been going into your pocket,” Tammy said.
I laughed. These two fifteen-year-old monsters were surrounded by adults and none of them seemed to be able to speak in their presence. “Why is that funny?” Tina asked.
“Because first of all, you signed those royalties over to me. It’s in your contract.”
“No it’s….”
“Page thirty-one, section two, paragraph four,” I told her. She narrowed her eyes and motioned at the attorney on her side. He began flipping madly through the document.
“While he’s doing that, what is the second reason you find this funny?”
“That money is far from going into my pocket. Do you have any idea the money that goes into promoting new talent? If you could go out and make a CD and get famous with no promotion, you would have never come to me in the first place.”
“You came to us.” She was right. I found them singing in a talent show in the mall when they were twelve. It took three years and millions of dollars to get them to the point they are now and the little brats are going to accuse me of stealing from them. The attorney on Tammy’s left leaned in and whispered something to her. He pointed at the contract in front of him. “Why didn’t you see that before? Haven’t you read the fucking contract?” None of the adults on her side of the table cringed at the drop of the F-bomb. Holly however looked simply mortified.
“I read the contract…it’s the way that it’s worded…”
“We pay you too fucking much to miss things,” the other brat told him. She looked at me then and said, “Since our staff is incompetent, break it down for us Axel. What do we get when people download our music and what are you taking?”
“That’s a simple one. You get nothing for the first three years and I’m taking it all.”
“That’s fucked up!” Tina kicked the table. I felt Holly jump next to me.
&nb
sp; “Maybe…for you,” I told her.
“We’ll sue you!” Tammy said.
“You can’t. That’s in the contract too,” I told her, pissing her off further.
“Three years? By then you’ll make millions off us.” I stood up and motioned to Holly to do the same. I buttoned my blazer and said,
“If it wasn’t for me, there would be no money to be made…you’ll do well to remember that. You’re welcome to opt out of your contract at any time…but let me make sure you understand something.” Holly stood up and I could see her watching me out of the corner of her eye. “Just as I put no limits on how soon you can opt out of your contract, there are no limits on how soon I can opt out as well. Call another bullshit meeting like this one that wastes my time because your teenaged feelings are hurt and I’ll fire you both. Then, you can keep all your royalties…from your one hit. All of you have a nice day.” I took Holly’s elbow and led her out again. I could feel her arm shaking and when we got back into the elevator I said, “Are you okay?”
She looked at me with hero worship in her eyes and I knew without a doubt that I would have her and soon. Blushing a deep, scarlet red she said, “I’m great, thank you.”
4
Holly
I was trembling all over and I didn’t know why. Standing in the elevator next to Axel, I would have to say that it was just raw physical attraction. I was finding it hard to breathe around him…and it wasn’t just his looks. There was something in the way he carried himself that said he truly didn’t care what anyone thought of him. I found that refreshing and so sexy. I’d spent most of my life worrying what others thought of me…I’d love to be that self-confident and I’d never realized until today how much that kind of confidence in a man turned me on.
“I’m sorry you had to see me get like that on your first day here,” he was saying as we stepped off the elevator. “That terrible twosome just pushes my buttons.” I smiled at him. I wondered if my face belied the fact that I practically creamed my panties when he started telling those girls what he thought of them.
“Well, I don’t know the whole story, but I was impressed with how you put them in their place.”
He smiled like that pleased him. Looking at his watch he said, “Would you like a tour?” I would like anything that gave me more time with him.
“I’d love a tour, thank you.”
He pushed the down button on the elevator and we stepped off on the second floor into a lounge area. Here there were people…I was beginning to wonder if anyone else was in the building. He led me down the hall and opened a door that said, “Studio A.” There were four guys in there practicing on their instruments. Axel introduced me and joked around with them for a bit. He pointed out a room that said ISO room “A,” and said,
“That’s our soundproof room over there. When it’s in use the red light will be lit and the door can’t be opened from the outside.” There were two more studios and ISO rooms on that floor, “B” and “C,” as well as a large bathroom and a kitchen and an office and something called a “mic” room. From the second floor, he took me up to the third where there was an actual coffee shop and café. I’m not sure, but I think I recognized a famous singer or two. I didn’t want to say anything and embarrass myself though. The fourth floor was room after room of sound equipment and the fifth was nothing but offices. The sum total of things was that this building was huge and it was going to take me a long time to figure out where everything was. I did enjoy my tour though. I’d never held the interest of such an intelligent, gorgeous man for so long before. I wasn’t deluding myself into thinking there was anything more going on than my boss showing me around…but that didn’t mean I couldn’t use the image of him naked in one of the isolation rooms as fodder for my fantasies later on.
“What are you thinking?” he asked me. We were on our way back up to his office when I had that thought. My stupid pale skin gives me away every time when it gets as red as a beet.
“I was just…making a grocery list in my head.”
He looked hurt. “Oh wow…I must be getting dull in my old age. When I was younger girls couldn’t think straight enough in my presence to make grocery lists.”
“Oh my goodness! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…I mean I don’t think…” He started laughing.
“I’m just kidding,” he said. “I have to confess that I find your blushing extremely cute. That’s what I was going for.” My face was burning up. “See, there it is,” he said with another laugh.
When we got back upstairs he showed me where the flight plan was and I faxed it to his pilot. About five o’clock he came out of his office and locked it. Then, he handed me a manila envelope and a set of keys. I looked at him questioningly and he said, “I need a favor…that envelope needs to be in Queens by seven. The address is on it.”
“Of course I’ll take it. What are the keys for?”
“They’re to the Aston. It’s in the CEO spot on the second level of the garage. It’s blue…”
“The what?”
“My car. The Aston Martin.”
“Oh no! I have my own car. I don’t mind taking it…”
He smiled at me and said, “Do yourself a favor and at least think about taking it. An hour drive on Grand Central Parkway in that baby…it’s like sex with a three thousand dollar an hour hooker.”
I couldn’t help it, I laughed. “I really wouldn’t have a point of reference there sir.” He leaned in close and laid the keys down on the desk in front of me. With his mouth so close to my ear that his warm breath gave me goose bumps he said,
“Live a little, Holly. You won’t regret it.” I shivered. He looked satisfied. He left the keys and with a wink he got on the elevator and left. I realized then that I’d been holding my breath since he leaned over the desk. This man was going to be trouble for me, I could already tell. I smiled at that thought. It had been a long time since I’d had any real fun trouble in my life. I picked up the car keys and put them down. Then, I picked them up again. I looked at the clock and decided if I was going to be sure and get it there by seven, I should go…As I gathered my own things, I thought about Mark. We were supposed to “celebrate” tonight. I picked up the phone and called him.
“Well hello beautiful! Are you home from your first afternoon as a music mogul’s assistant?”
“Not yet. He needs me to take a package to Queens for him.”
“At five o’clock? Is he running drugs?” Mark laughed, but I could tell he wasn’t happy about me working late tonight. It had been almost a week since we’d had sex. I’m sure he was looking forward to it. I wished that I was.
“Music people don’t keep regular hours. I’m sorry to throw a wrench into our plans. I should make it back by eight-thirty or nine at the latest…”
“Okay babe. I’ll order us some dinner and chill some wine at my place. It’ll be on your way home.” I didn’t have a good reason to say no. I love Mark, but lately sex had become more of a chore than anything else. Nothing about he and I lit my fire the way Axel had in one afternoon without laying a finger on me. I felt guilty about that, but felt the tingle in the pit of my belly travel down between my legs nonetheless at just the thought of him.
“Okay, I’ll text you when I leave Queens.”
“So how is it?”
I was turning the keys to a two-hundred-thousand-dollar car over in my hand and having wet daydreams about my boss as I said, “It’s okay.”
“Is he as eccentric as people say he is?”
“Um…It’s too soon to tell I guess. He seems nice enough.”
“Okay babe. You drive safe. I love you and I can’t wait to see you.”
“I love you too.” I ended the call and looked at the picture of me and Mark on Coney Island that I had set as my screensaver. I’m a terrible person. How would I feel if Mark was lusting after his boss? I laughed as I headed for the elevator. Mark’s boss is a short, bald man with more hair on his body than most people have on their heads. I shud
dered at the thought as I stepped onto the elevator. Then shamelessly, I put poor Mark out of my mind once again.
The garage had cleared out a lot since I’d arrived earlier in the afternoon. I saw Axel’s car as soon as I stepped off the elevator. I felt a thrill run through my veins as soon as I saw it and I swear, my pulse sped up. I walked over to it, cautiously…afraid I would wake up from this dream and it would disappear. Axel must have it detailed every day. There wasn’t a speck of dust on any of its smooth blue lines or the chrome that adorned it. I pushed the button on the fob in my hand and the car beeped at me and I heard the locks click open. Carefully, I pulled open the door and I was instantly hit with the smell of new leather. Axel didn’t just hand me the key to his two-hundred-thousand-dollar sports car. It was his brand-new sports car. I sat down and let my butt glide in across the tan leather seat. It was like sitting on air. I leaned my head back into the seat and closed my eyes. I still wasn’t sure I was going to drive it…but just sitting in it was an experience in itself.
I opened my eyes and a big security officer was standing next to the car. “Shit!” I yelled, sitting upright. “You startled me.”
“Sorry Miss. I saw you laying back and I just wanted to make sure that you’re okay.”
“I’m good, thank you. I was just resting for a second.”
“Better here than on the parkway, huh?”
I laughed. “Definitely, especially since I’m driving my new boss’s car.”
He laughed. “Mr. Maxwell is a pretty easy-going guy…but I think hurting his car might be
crossing some kind of line.”
“Do you know him very well?” I asked him.
“I’ve worked for him for five years.”
“Is he as nice as he seems?”
“That’s a hard question to answer. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard anyone call him “nice.” He’s