by Tia Siren
My skin heated up as his voice boomed across to my desk.
“Enjoying the technology I have for you?” he asked.
“Your schedule was bullshit,” I said. “I fixed it up and sent off a few emails.”
“Have you gotten used to the phone yet? There’s a headset in the bottom left-hand drawer if you’d prefer to use that. Hands-free might be easier for you.”
“Hands-free is always the best way, Mr. Jacobs,” I said, grinning. “Should I be taking notes on your comments on my phone?”
His face grew stern before he turned his back and walked into his office. Just before he shut the door, I got the best view of his ass, and it was more beautiful than what I’d seen in my dreams last night. Tight. Perky. Slender. The ass of a runner who decided a few squats every now and again would do him well.
And boy did it ever do him well.
I ripped my attention back to my phone as it buzzed in my hand. Sissy had sent me a text message, and I couldn’t wait to see her reply. I’d sent her a picture of my pierced tits. I didn’t know if she was going to be envious or fly off the handle, but I had a response prepared for both.
But when I opened the message, all it said was, Good luck, Crissy. You’ll kill it.
Nothing? Nada about the picture? I sent her an email about my nipple piercings! That warranted some sort of reaction, right?
Did you not get my email?
I sent the text message just as the phone rang. I sighed, setting my cell down before I took the call. I didn’t have time for this right now. I was trying to figure out why the hell my sister hadn’t reacted to the biggest thing I’d done since graduation! I jotted down the person’s name and the times they were free to do another lunch meeting. Then I hung up just as my cell phone buzzed again.
What email?
What email? Was she fucking serious?
The email with the picture of my boobs, Sissy. I got my nipples pierced!
Then Grant’s comment from this morning started to make a little more sense. I scrolled through my email and navigated to my ‘sent’ folder, and the moment I pulled up the email, I gasped.
Holy fuck. I’d sent the picture of my tits to Grant. To his fucking work email. How the hell did I make that kind of mistake? I saw an email sitting in my draft folder, and I clicked it open and scanned the poorly written email that was supposed to be sent to [email protected].
And my sister’s fucking email was [email protected].
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck! My phone must have saved his damn work email into my fucking contacts! I opened a new email and typed in the letter ‘G,’ and of course the first email to pop up was GJacobs. All because I drafted a fucking email when I was drunk.
Well, that was one way to make an impression on the new boss.
I tossed my phone to the side before I reached for the drawer that had the headset in it. That thing would make it worlds easier to answer this damn phone that didn’t seem to shut up. I looked up as I got it positioned on my head, and I caught Grant staring at me. The moment our eyes connected, he ripped them away, and I couldn’t help but feel a bit proud. He hadn’t fired me on the spot, so the picture must not have been that bad to him. Plus, I saw him checking out my tits when he turned around from the window this morning, so they obviously did something for him.
Maybe this internship wouldn’t be so boring after all.
As I fielded phone calls and kept filling up his schedule, I thought about Grant Jacobs. I’d had a fun little crush on the man when I was in high school, back when his hair wasn’t dotted with salt. His hair was a thick, luscious mound of dark tendrils, and it framed his strong jaw while accenting his beautiful green eyes.
I never saw him smile often, but the few times I caught him and my father laughing, I couldn’t help but lose myself in the twinkling of his eyes. Grant had just purchased Dad’s company at the time, and while that didn’t make Dad happy, Grant would come over with an expensive bottle of scotch. They’d sit and chat and talk about boring shit I never paid attention to, and eventually the two of them made nice.
And while Grant came over to smooth things over with my father, I got to check out his beautiful body.
Back then, whenever he’d come over, he’d take off his coat and roll up his sleeves. I’d gotten a glimpse of the way his forearms bulged and flexed whenever he grabbed his drink. A few times, he came over in jeans and a shirt on the weekends. On those wonderful, rare moments, I’d gotten to experience the breadth of his chest and the strength of his back. He’d help out Dad with a few things around the house, and I’d watch him flex those beautiful biceps, and all the while, I’d be stealing little glasses here and there of the expensive scotch Grant always conveniently forgot.
But now, his hair was peppered with a bit of salt. Now, his suits hung just a bit too loose on him for a man with that kind of body underneath. Now, his long-ass legs tapered up into a trimmed ass I knew I’d be staring at for months to come.
Because I knew I’d nail this job before his deadline approached.
I had an easy job, a beautiful view of one of the sexiest men to have ever been created, and I would be rubbing elbows with some of the most important people I’d need to know if I ever wanted to own my own fucking company one day. Maybe my father’s idea for this internship hadn’t been a bad one after all, and if it turned out to be a bust, then there was always the view.
The view of those stormy green eyes through only the window that separated us.
The stormy green eyes that twinkled when he smiled and had taken in the sight of my tits this morning.
The phone finally died down, and I got a moment to breathe. I sat back in my chair and crossed my legs, but when I looked up, I saw Grant staring at me again. I set the headset down on my shoulders before I rolled them back, and the way he shifted in his seat told me everything I needed to know.
Tormenting poor Mr. Jacobs would make this job much more entertaining.
Chapter 5
Grant
I sat at my desk, frustrated, as I watched the clock. I’d sent Crissy an email a half an hour ago, telling her to get in here so she could take notes for me. I had ideas running through my head and things had been thrown at me over lunch that I needed to remember. They were things she had to mark down on the calendar, shift around, and there would be a couple nights I needed her to stay later. That meant she would have to adjust her own schedule, and I wanted to make sure that got put down on the calendar, too.
This week had been rough, and it wasn’t even half over. While Crissy did plenty of things well, like answering the phone and staying on top of my schedule, there were other things she didn’t do well. She didn’t take notes, she wasn’t very organized, times to show up to work were more like suggestions than requirements, and she always forgot to clock out on her lunch breaks. That meant I had to go out there and ask her when she took lunch before going into the system and altering it myself.
But all day yesterday, I was nursing a fucking hard-on. Every single time she came into my damn office, an inappropriate question rolled off her lips. Quips about my shoe size and whether I wore boxers or briefs had me clenching my jaw, but the moment she started in on my inseam, I had to dismiss her for the day. What the hell was this girl trying to do to me? I’d seen her fucking tits, I’d had enough of her shit attitude, and now she was perpetually bugging me about things that were beyond inappropriate.
And when I asked her what she was doing, she simply told me she was learning all about me so she could “better assist” me.
I had to admit, my cock had sprung to life when she’d said that. Her voice was light, and she fluttered her eyelashes a bit. She rolled her shoulders back a lot, jutting out those perky and rounded tits that I knew housed barbells I could just drool over. When I didn’t respond to one of her questions, she’d turn and walk away from me, and the first thing I noticed was how beautiful her ass swayed when she was wearing heels.
I’d had to take a cold fucking
shower when I got home last night.
But now? I needed her to do her damn job. Now I needed her in my office so I could spout a few things off at her. I needed her actual assistance, and she was nowhere to be found. I stood from my chair and strode out of my office, ready to fire her on the spot. I would never be able to work properly with the inappropriate questions. Nor would I be able to work with a personal assistant who didn’t sit at her desk and—well, personally assist me.
However, when I heard giggling around the corner, a shiver ran down my spine.
Was that Crissy’s giggle? It was a beautiful sound, but it rumbled a bit low. It wasn’t high-pitched like I figured a girl like her would giggle. The moment a voice started in on another joke, I knew exactly who was around the corner.
“Mr. Anderson,” I said as I rounded the corner. “How was your lunch break?”
There Crissy was, pressed up against the wall with her foot crooked up on it. Her knee was bent, and her shoulders were pressed back, pushing her tits out. The smile on her face was innocent, but the glint in her eye was devilish, and I felt my back straighten out. Dylan’s lips were smirking, like I’d just caught him in the middle of one of his tricks, but I knew Crissy well enough to know that she somehow had the upper hand. Even with Dylan leaning against the wall with his hand just by her head, he only had the appearance of having the upper hand.
“It was good,” he said, grinning. “I found this little treat up here as I was coming to see you, and I thought I might have a bite of dessert real quick.”
“Dylan, you are such a bad boy,” Crissy said as that low rumble of a giggle began again. “You’re keeping me from my job, you know.”
“And it’s a job I bet you do fabulously,” Dylan said.
“There are many things I do fabulously, but I’m not sure if my job is one of them. You know, still learning the ropes and all.”
“Boss man here got you…tied up with all those ropes?” Dylan asked.
“You said you needed something, Mr. Anderson?” This workplace flirting was not appropriate, and that would be the first thing I would address with Miss Marks. My company was not the place for this type of interaction, especially since Mr. Anderson was absolutely terrible at it. A young woman like Crissy could do much better than the likes of him, and for a split second, I could’ve sworn I saw her flick her smirk toward me.
“Actually, yes,” he said. “I’ve got some information on that stream of revenue suggestion you told me to research.”
“That meeting will be later,” I said. “Until then, continue to gather as much as you can.”
“But I’m pretty sure I have everything there is on the topic. If we could just sit down—”
“If I sit down with you, I have to sit down with all the junior executives, Mr. Anderson, and I don’t have that kind of time. Miss Marks, your lunch break was over a half an hour ago. I need you in my office.”
“Oh, I’m sure you do,” she said, grinning.
“Do you care for your job, Miss Marks?” I asked.
The look on her face slowly morphed as she turned her head toward me.
“Dylan, I believe my boss needs me,” she said as she hooked her gaze on mine. “Care to talk later?”
“I’m looking forward to it,” he said.
Crissy snapped her gaze back at him and smiled kindly before her foot slid from the wall. I turned my back, feeling it pull taut as her heels clacked in front of me. She buzzed by me, heading for my office, and again, I found my eyes slipping down to her ass. I bet those tight cheeks of hers would overflow the palms of my massive hands, but the moment she sighed, it pulled me from my silent reverie.
“I’m sorry your job is impeding upon your personal life,” I said as I entered the office. “But no fraternizing of that sort occurs here.”
“I shall keep that in mind,” she said before she sat down.
Yet again, Crissy didn’t have anything to jot down notes with. I sighed before I pulled out a pen and pad. Then I handed them to her across the desk. Our fingers brushed, ricocheting a shot of electricity up my arm, but all I could do was ignore it. My mind was flooded with a thousand different ideas, and I needed them out before I lost them all.
“This meeting is confidential,” I began. “If any of this information gets out to the public, you will be fired on the spot.”
“On the spot. Got it,” she said.
“J&M is in the middle of a possible acquisition,” I said. “We’re still batting around figures and what that might mean for the company as a whole, but overall, it looks good.”
“It looks very good,” she said.
“Just take notes on whatever I say; then shoot me an email with the summary of it all,” I said.
“I can do that, sir.”
“Tike Oils Company has been spreading into the Midwest. We’ve had a hard time spreading into that area of the country, but their CEO has just been charged with several accounts of fraud, among other things. I’m preparing myself to make them an offer on acquiring their company. My accountants are currently evaluating the final offer I’m going to propose to them, but I’m thinking anything between three million and five million dollars for the twenty-million-dollar company.”
I sat back into my chair before I turned it toward the window. This company acquisition could mean a massive boost in yearly revenue in an area of the country we’d had a hard time establishing ourselves in. Tike Oils was a fairly new player in the area, but they were garnering a massive base of connections and trust.
That was, until their CEO fucked up.
But his fuck-up was my potential gain if I could play this right.
“Tomorrow morning at nine, I need to call the CEO,” I said. “I want to have a personal talk with him about what he’s being charged with and how fast it’s happening. I can’t take on a company with too much heat. Otherwise, I can’t fix it. They’ll need some work already, like updating their workplace policies as well as their overall brand. They’ll also need to trim down their employees. I won’t be able to take all of them on full time until I can really get us established in the Midwest.”
“Likes things trimmed down,” Crissy said. “Got it.”
“I do want to offer the CEO’s family shares of stock in the new merger. Just because he’s going to prison for a while doesn’t mean his wife and kids have to suffer. It won’t be anything substantial, but I’m thinking a three to five percent stock share in the newly merged company. I can afford to give that up.”
“Wants to give some things up,” she said, popping the “p.”
I knew what she was doing. She was trying to rile me up, like she had yesterday. Like she knew she had yesterday. She was trying to cause a fuss and wreak havoc and get underneath my skin.
But I wasn’t going to allow her to do that today.
“The board of Tike Oils is going to throw a fit,” I said. “I have to figure out how big it’s going to be, which means doing research on their board members. Miss Marks, I want you to take on that research. Get me what you can on those men, from their birthdates and where they live, all the way down to their last public hissy fit. I want to know these men inside and out before I begin this deal.”
“Knowledge is power. Gotcha there, too.”
“I want that research on my desk by next Tuesday at the latest—”
I turned around in my chair to face her, and I saw her heavy blue eyes staring at me. She seemed focused and intent, without a hint of malice of playfulness in her features, but the moment I looked down at the pad I’d given her, I saw nothing was written. I’d been sitting here, mindlessly chatting for ten or so minutes, and none of it was on paper.
“Why are you not writing any of this down?” I asked.
“The vault, remember?” she asked, grinning.
“Miss Marks, this job is a very serious position,” I said. “Being my personal assistant comes with responsibilities, and one of the simple ones is for you to take notes. Is that not a concept you
understand?”
“It is, Mr. Jacobs,” she said. “I just don’t need the crutch of a pen and a piece of paper to recall the boring information you’re giving me.”
“Then why don’t you repeat back to me the information you think you remember,” I said.
“You’re talking about acquiring Tike Oils Company in order to compensate your own falling revenues with this company. They’re expanding into the Midwest. Their CEO just got caught embezzling, however. Not defrauding his company. He’s also being pinged for tax evasion, if you can believe it. You want me to do research on his board members so you can go in there and do some kind of mind-fuck-bag-juju on them in order to intimidate them, and you want all that information by Tuesday. You want a planned phone call on your calendar for tomorrow at nine to discuss things with the CEO while your accountant draws up the terms for an offer he can’t refuse. But if you’re going to make that phone call, at least know what the poor man’s being charged with.”
I couldn’t help but be stunned. Crissy sat back in her chair and crossed her legs, smirking. In this moment, she knew she had the upper hand. Boys like Dylan Anderson didn’t know how to handle a woman like her, and it seemed every time we turned a corner, she had a new little facet of her personality I hadn’t noticed before.
“And no,” she said. “I didn’t forget about the three to five percent stock you want to give over to his family when the companies merge—after they trim down their staff, of course. Which doesn’t surprise me. Most men enjoy things a little slimmer when they first take them on. What they don’t realize, however, is that a meaty and robust company can really keep an acquiring company warm during the wintertime.”
Was she even talking about the company acquisition now?
“A word of advice?” she asked. “If you want to acquire a company, but then you ask them to trim down their staff, make sure you can take on at least half of them. If you don’t have the revenue to fully take on half, you’re not in a position to buy the company.”