by Claire Adams
“Two ice waters, please,” I said as we set our shoes on the bar and slid onto a couple of stools. “You should have seen this guy earlier, he was so cheesy as he was hitting on these women. I couldn’t help but laugh at him.”
“What did he look like?” Jessica asked as she leaned in close.
“Tall, dark hair, beautiful blue eyes and a leather jacket.”
Jessica’s eyes seemed to be looking over my shoulder and not paying attention at all to what I was saying. I couldn’t help but turn around to see who or what she was looking at. Sure enough, the blue eyes flirt was right beside me with a huge grin on his face.
“You threw me off my game,” he said playfully. “I’m Declan, and it’s nice to meet you.”
“I wouldn’t call what you were doing a serious pickup game. More like amateur hour at the nightclub, but it’s nice to meet you too.”
“You took off before I got to the good stuff,” he continued on playfully.
I couldn’t stop looking at his eyes. The more I told myself to look away, the more fixated my stare got. At this point, I probably looked like some sort of maniac, and in self-defense I turned toward Jessica to finally pull my focus away from Declan.
He smelled amazing though, like a combination of cinnamon and Old Spice. It probably wasn’t Old Spice, considering his high-end taste in clothing. I didn’t think he’d pick a bargain scent. I pulled in a deep breath to fill my lungs with the smell and then turned back toward him, still not confident at all in my ability to talk to this man.
“Did you ask them what they did for a living? Or if they come here often?” I continued to tease him.
“Hey, I happen to be very good at the pickup game.”
He could have picked me up. Declan could have wrapped his arms around me easily and swept me off my feet. He was nearly a foot taller than me with a muscular build that showed through the tailored shirt he had on. Even the bulk of the leather coat couldn’t fight back the muscular body that was likely under it.
I was seriously distracted by this guy, and that wasn’t what I wanted for my first day in Los Angeles. I had to get away from him. I had to make a run for it, so I resorted to a little nastiness.
“Is that supposed to impress me? It doesn’t. I like guys who don’t have to come to clubs to pick up their women.”
“But you’re at a club?” He looked at me with a snide expression like he had just nailed me in our game of words.
“And I don’t want to be picked up by a slime-ball who was just trying to get in the pants of some underage college girls. Have a good night,” I said curtly and grabbed Jessica as I stormed off.
“It was nice meeting you. I’m Jessica,” she hollered back toward him.
“Jessica!” I yelled at her as I pulled her behind me.
“What? He was so handsome.”
“Handsome and a jerk. You could do better.”
We were both exhausted and ready to go home after that excitement. I slipped my shoes on and tried to ignore the sticky residue on the bottom of my feet as we waited in the line for a cab. It was a long line, even though the traffic in the city didn’t seem bad at all. But I figured there were a lot of people leaving the bars and clubs around the same time, so we just had to wait.
“He was cute,” Jessica finally said as our ears stopped ringing.
“Cute doesn’t make up for being a jerk.”
“Oh, come on, he wasn’t a jerk. He seemed like a normal guy just trying to meet a woman. Maybe you’re just mad he wasn’t hitting on you?”
“He was hitting on me! That’s what that whole conversation was about. He wanted me to think he gave up trying to get those other two girls in order to flirt with me. When the reality of the situation was likely that they didn’t see the humor in his threesome offer.”
“He wanted to have a threesome?” Jessica said confused at what I was talking about. “I must have missed that part of the conversation.”
“Why else would a man buy two girls a drink and flirt with them both? That’s what he was doing when I saw him earlier.”
I knew men, and I couldn’t think of a single reason why a good-looking guy would buy two girls a drink, except the obvious. He was trying to get with both of them, I was sure of it. Declan looked like the kind of suave guy who was into kinky things like that, at least in my imagination he was.
“Maybe he was just being nice because they were standing there together. Man, you really need to lighten up and be nicer to these guys if you’re ever going to nab one.”
“Oh, my God, men are the last thing on my mind right now. I just want to find a decent job and get settled in out here. It would be fantastic if this guy my father has me working with didn’t turn out to be a chauvinistic pig.”
The ride back to Jessica’s apartment was quick since it was nearly two o’clock in the morning. We both winced in pain as we walked in our heels through the lobby and then slipped our shoes off once we hit the elevator. It was ridiculous how much high heels hurt my feet, yet I continued to wear them on a daily basis.
“You’ll change your mind when a hunky guy catches your eye.”
“Doubtful.”
The sweet smell of Jessica’s apartment was comforting as we walked in. Her furniture was arranged so the couch back faced the door and I fell over it in exhaustion. The cold leather touched all my exposed skin and should have shocked me awake, but I was just too exhausted.
My bright fuchsia dress was just fine to sleep in and I grabbed a blanket from nearby and cuddled up with it. I’d been awake for over twenty-four hours and could barely keep my eyes open, I was so tired.
“You’re sleeping there,” she laughed. “In case I didn’t tell you before.”
“Perfect. I’m going to sleep right now. Thanks for having me; I really appreciated it.”
“See you in the morning, and we can go work out,” Jessica said as she walked to her bedroom.
“Work out? Like go to the gym and get sweaty on a Saturday morning?” I asked, actually concerned I hadn’t heard her correctly.
“Yep, it’s boot camp Saturday. You’re going to love it. Look at how tight my ass has gotten from going to this class.”
“We’ll see,” I said as I closed my eyes and drifted off toward sleep, although I had no intention of going to any workout class in the morning. I wasn’t really the workout sort of girl.
Chapter 5
Declan
“Santa Monica Pier please,” I said to the Uber driver after loading my bag into the back.
“On the beach or the actual pier?” the driver asked.
“Beach; thanks for asking. I’m going for a quick run.”
I couldn’t stop thinking about the cute blonde in the tiny pink dress. She was a firecracker and looked totally out of place in that club. It surprised me that I hadn’t been able to close the deal with her; she seemed in to me. Any woman who could get that angry at me, that quickly, unquestionably had a thing for me. But yet she still denied me and I couldn’t forget it.
My morning workout on this particular day consisted of running five miles along the beach. I dropped my bag with a friend at his juice stand and then took off down the sand. No shoes, no headphones, just me and nature making the morning more invigorating. It didn’t matter if I woke up to the warmth of Los Angeles or the cold of Colorado: I loved being outside. In fact, I only tolerated my time in the office because it was a means to an end that I liked much better.
As the sun rose in the East, the beach traffic started to pick up and I quickened my pace. When I arrived back at my friends juice bar, The Squeeze, he was just finishing his morning vegetable prep and opening to the public. Barely out of breath, I wiped off and stayed to visit for a minute.
“Dude, you’re going to die when you see the waves today. I heard they are going to be massive,” my high school friend, River, said.
“Man, I’ve got to go do the whole work thing today. Some of us have real jobs.”
“The purpose of
having a lot of money is so you don’t have to work. Not so you spend even more time working. What’s happened to you, Declan?”
“I’m working on getting a break soon. Thanks for the smoothie. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Try not to work too hard in that corporate jail you’ve made yourself.”
“I’ll try not to.”
I didn’t feel exactly like River did about working, but I did always have my eye on the future and my end game. Sooner or later I hoped to pass on the day-to-day operations of my company to one of my department heads. Then I’d get to stay out of the messy parts of the business and just show up for board meetings, which was much more my pace. But until I felt ready for that major change, I was going to have to keep plugging along with the day-to-day decisions of my company.
As I walked off the elevator and toward my office, the empty desk, where Margery had sat for so many years, gave me anxiety. I really hoped Teddy’s daughter knew what she was doing and could actually help me out while I continued to interview new assistants. There was just too much work for me not to have a right-hand man, or woman, working with me over the next few weeks.
I quickly jumped into my office shower to clean up and change before the day got started. My week was going to be busier than usual as we finalized designs for the new project and I had a charity fundraising event to go to on Valentine’s Day at the end of the week.
“Hello?” I heard a woman’s voice say after I had just lathered the soap up in my hair.
“Just finishing my shower,” I hollered out, thinking it was one of the department heads and I had forgotten an early morning meeting or something like that.
“It’s fine, I’ll wait in the lobby,” the voice said, and suddenly I realized it was Teddy’s daughter.
“Oh, crap. Sorry. I forgot you were coming this early,” I yelled after her.
“I’m a half hour early,” she replied as she stood right outside the bathroom door. “I wasn’t sure how long it would take to get here. The traffic is wild out here, and I’m such a newbie at it.”
“Yeah, it really is crazy. Thanks for agreeing to help out. I appreciate it. I swear I’d lose my own head if it wasn’t attached to my body.”
“That sounds gross,” she laughed. “I’ll wait for you in the lobby. Take your time.”
“Okay,” I said as I turned the water off and reached for a towel.
But there were no towels. Nothing. Not a single towel in my whole bathroom. Apparently stocking the bathroom with towels was one of Margery’s jobs that I didn’t know she did. Reluctantly, I yelled out to see if Emmi was still in my office.
“Hey, Emmi, are you still there?”
“Yep,” she yelled, and I heard her footsteps move back toward the bathroom.
“I hate to ask you, but can you grab me a towel out of the closet just outside my office? It has a silver handle and is right behind the desk.”
“A towel?”
“Yeah, I’m really sorry. My old assistant did a lot more around here than I knew. I forgot to grab some towels before I jumped into the shower.”
“Sure, no problem,” she chipperly replied.
I couldn’t stop shaking my head at my own stupidity. Teddy would hate it if he knew I was sending his daughter to get me a towel while I stood naked in my bathroom. Not exactly the best first impression to make on his sweet little girl.
I opened the door when I heard her come back in the office and stuck my hand out through the smallest crack in the door. It meant a lot to me that Teddy’s daughter would be helping me out and I needed to get my damn clothes on.
“Thank you. I’ll be out in a minute.”
“No problem. Like I said before, I’ll be in the lobby,” she said as I heard her start to close my office door. “Are you sure you don’t need anything else? I’m really going to the lobby.”
“I think I’m good,” I laughed.
So far I really liked Emmi. She seemed like a relaxed girl who at least had a sense of humor. I also liked the fact that I had promised Teddy there would be no funny business between the two of us. Taking sex out of the equations made it a lot easier to work with someone, and that was exactly why Margery and I had worked out so well for all the years she was there.
After quickly drying off and putting my dress slacks on, I pulled on a white t-shirt and button-up shirt, but no tie. I didn’t wear a tie unless there were lawyers involved, and even then I tried to avoid it whenever possible.
“You can come in now, I’m sorry I was…” my words froze as I looked at the blonde standing in my lobby. It was her. It was the sexy, petite blonde bombshell from the club. I couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. “You’re Emmi Shields?”
“Wow, now if this isn’t a coincidence, I don’t know what is.”
“Um, so okay…you’re Teddy’s daughter. This should be fun.”
She raised her eyebrow at me and the spark between us could hardly be contained. The soft smile that grazed her face was in far contrast to how she had acted at the club. I liked this version of her much better. Soft, sexy, and hypnotic as I stared at her glistening green eyes.
She looked good. Damn good. So good that I forgot for a minute that she was there to be my assistant. She had a stylish black blazer on with a stripped black and white blouse under it. Her tailored slacks looked like they were practically painted onto her, and I couldn’t wait to see her ass as when she walked away from me. A blitz of visuals from the night I met her in the club rushed through my mind.
Suddenly my promise to Teddy seemed much harder to keep than I had thought it was going to be when I made it. Having this little sex pot around all the time was going to distract me for sure, but at least she wasn’t yelling at me.
“I think we will get along alright, as long as you don’t use any of those horrible pickup lines on me.”
“I promise not to. How about I show you around the office and let you get settled in. I think I have a few meetings this morning, if my phone calendar is right. I’ve had some problems syncing it up to my computer.”
“Let me see,” she said as she held her hand out and waited for me to provide my phone to her. “Android or iPhone?”
“Android.”
I handed her my phone, and she tinkered with it while we walked to the end of the floor and I started to give her the tour. Our building wasn’t the biggest one around, but it was stylish, and I was really proud of the design and layout we had come up with.
“This is our main conference room. Usually my meetings are in here, sometimes other big teams will meet in here, but there are some other rooms downstairs that they use more often. This one is most often used when outsiders come for meetings.”
“What’s your email password?” Emmi asked as she continued with my phone and barely looked up at the office.
“I’ll type it,” I said as I grabbed it back.
“You’re going to have to trust me with these things if I’m going to be your assistant.”
“It’s not that I don’t trust you. I honestly can’t remember it unless I’m typing it into the phone keyboard. It’s a star with a circle around it. I should probably change it to an actual word so I can remember it, but most applications have it saved in there now, and it seems like a lot of trouble to change them all.”
“What would you change your password to if you could?”
“Capital s, then u-r-f-c-i-t-y-six-nine,” I said with a smile and a shrug.
She didn’t look up or acknowledge my slightly risqué use of the number sixty-nine in my password. So I continued on with our tour and let her fiddle with the phone while we walked. It was a little immature that I still laughed at the mere mention of sixty-nine, but I couldn’t help it. My friends and I had even made snowboarding tricks out of the number to try and get girls attention when we were younger.
“These offices are the marketing team. Edward is the team lead. They are working on some new ad campaigns for our last resort in Big Bear. Feel free to stop in a
nd say hello to them at any time. I’ll get you introduced at the noon meeting today so people will know who you are when they see you.”
“Done,” Emmi said as she handed me back my phone.
“What’s done?”
“I synced your email and changed all your passwords to your desired new password.”
“All of them?” I said as I thumbed through the apps on my phone. “I’ve got a lot of apps on here.”
“There’s a trick to it. I can show you if you’d like.”
“No, don’t bother, I’ll just forget it. But thanks for taking care of that for me.”
“Sure thing. I might be more help around here than you think. I’m not just a pretty face.”
“Your dad said you have an MBA; what sort of work do you hope to find once you’re settled into town?”
“I’m not sure. I used to think I wanted to work at a big company, but my last experience didn’t turn out so well. Maybe I’ll check out some smaller organizations, or even a consulting firm. I have no idea. Do you know how long you’ll be needed me?”
“I have no idea,” I laughed. “Apparently I’m really bad at hiring people, but I’ll have you help me go through some applicants, and it shouldn’t be too long. Did you have a time frame you wanted to finish up here by?”
“No, I’m good through the spring if you need me. I’d like to take it easy and really think through my next career choice.”
The way we were talking back and forth was already comfortable to me. I wasn’t even afraid of flirting with her because she seemed really good at her job and I needed someone like her around. Maybe I was being naive, but I really thought I would be able to keep our relationship on a platonic level.
“I might end up needing you that long. Do you have a place to stay or are you staying with your father? By the way, these are the offices of my architecture team. They are working closely with your father on our new Breckenridge project.”
“I’m staying with Jessica right downtown here; she’s the one I was with at the club. And I don’t really talk to my father much about his business stuff; you’ll have to fill me in on the project.”