It was still early when she arrived at the office. The parking lot was empty. The click of her high heel boots as she crossed the parking lot was a stark contrast to the silence of the morning. She slid her badge across the access pad, and the door beeped and flashed green. Good morning.
The building was dark. Offices surrounded by glass walls made the majority of the office space visible to anyone who passed by. Shane made her way to the bank of elevators and pressed the up button. Watching the numbers decrease as the elevator descended and climb again once she boarded the elevator as it delivered her to her destination. The board room lay one more floor up.
Shane closed her eyes, reviving the first kiss in her mind. Her body responded to the memory as her lips curled into a smile. Oh, Monday. What are we going to do with you?
She wandered through the dark hallways to her area, and the automatic lights came to life as if encouraging her path, leading her deeper into the building.
It was time to make coffee. Shane moved through the morning ritual, soothed by the smell and sounds of percolating coffee. When she was here alone, the office normally felt too quiet. This morning, it was easy to brush that away. It was the quiet that made space for their rendezvous. She didn’t know when that magic moment would have happened without the empty office as their playground. It would be a while before her coworkers arrived. Shane filled her cup with the liquid gold and retreated to her cubicle. With a gentle press of the button, the monitors came to life. Shane’s fingers raced over the keyboard, entering passwords and access codes. With a gentle nudge of encouragement, her thoughts returned to work. Her early morning dedication was rewarded by a full inbox. Wonderful.
Actually, lately it seemed like everything was wonderful. As she settled in to work a smile crept over her lips and stayed despite the full inbox and packed calendar. She opened the first message and began to read as time slipped away and the office came to life around her.
“Morning Sunshine” It sounded sarcastic and sweet. Travis, her cube mate, was here. His weekend with Barry had gone well. She could hear it in his voice.
“Hey, Travis” She leaned back in her chair and rolled to the edge of her cubicle just in time to catch him disappear into his space. Shane stood on tiptoe to see over the four-foot wall. "Travis," she hissed. She wanted his attention without calling attention to their whole conversation. "How did it go?"
Travis turned to face her. His eyes were bright; she knew she was right. “A-ma-zing.” Shane was out of her cubicle and into his. “Tell me.” She leaned in, listening.
“Shane, they were so nice. Everybody made me feel so welcome. His sister is a doll.” Travis looked around to make sure they were still alone. “We went to the club for dinner.”
Shane rolled her eyes, and a laugh escaped her lips before she could catch it. “Club?” Barry’s family bred wealth. Travis smiled, dismissing her teasing. Abundance and old money were a new experience for her friend.
“Shane,” he scolded. “It’s not about that.” And she knew it wasn’t. Travis had stumbled through the dating world without luck for longer than she could remember. He’d developed a terrible habit of falling for men who were unavailable, uninterested, or unable to tell the truth.
For Barry, like Shane, something had changed. She’d known Barry was different after their first date. This weekend had been a big deal. Travis’s family had not accepted his romantic choices. They pressured him to bring home a nice girl. News flash, Travis didn’t want a nice girl. It had been a challenge for him to find a good man, and this good man had a good job, a kind family, and it seemed a sizable inheritance.
Travis confided in a low voice. “It could not have gone better. I know I shouldn’t say this yet, but I really think he could be the one.” Shane threw her arms around him to embrace her friend. He hugged her back, and then she sat perched on his desk as she listened to his weekend story unfold. God bless him, he recounted everything from the moment he left the office on Friday, until the moment he stood in front of her.
“A-ma-zing," She said, smiling. Shane's eyes mirrored her friend's brightness, and she hugged him again. “I am so happy for you.” Shane moved from the spot where she'd perched on his desk for the better part of the last twenty minutes.
“Me too, girl, thank you.”
Shane smiled, "For what?”
“For listening, for being my sounding board.”
“Shush.” She said as she stepped away, warmed by his words. “I’ll always listen.”
“We need to double now that I’ve got somebody good. You got anyone in your sights?” Shane was glad he turned away as she stepped out of his cubicle. She knew her face would have betrayed her.
“Ummmm” She steadied her voice. “Not really.” Shane moved away from him, toward her workspace and could hear him thinking aloud as his mind turned to work.
"You know, Barry even has straight friends. I'll talk to him; maybe he knows someone good. It's different, Shane, you’ve got to get someone good. Once you do, you’ll never go back to those losers you usually date.”
Shane slid into her chair and turning her attention back to work at hand. "I bet."
“I bet what?” Shane looked up to see Ryan’s deep blue eyes staring down at her. They sparkled with the tease as his tall ass sexy six-foot frame filled the opening of her cubicle, Starbucks cup in hand. “Coffee?” It was more of a statement than a question.
The smile revealed itself in her voice, in her eyes, and on her lips. “Yes, please.” Bringing her coffee in the morning had become a lovely sort of habit he’d picked up. Their work connected them with shared space and meetings, but he let her know she was on his mind, like all the time. She took the steaming cup from his hands and curled her fingers around its warmth. “Ready for your meeting?”
He grinned and nodded. “I am.”
Shane mirrored his body language, nodding along, without realizing she did it. “They’re going to love you.” She knew somewhere behind the confidence; he needed her encouragement.
She could see it in his eyes when he spoke. “I hope so.”
She lowered her voice, "and you look great.” The white crisp dress shirt set off the sun-kissed glow of his tan skin, and the black-tie and charcoal dress pants complemented his dark hair and ice blue eyes. His body was easy and at home, in his dress clothes as he was in the gym.
He leaned in close enough so she could feel his breath on her skin, "and you…look like a snack."
She shivered, pleased with the compliment.
“Lunch later?”
“I’d love that.”
“Okay. I’ve got to go.” He flashed a grin at her and was gone.
“Good luck.” She called after him needing to tell him but not sure if her words reached his ears. A snack. That man. How was she supposed to work with him saying things like that?
Shane to turn her attention back to the screen in front of her. Someone was asking a question that blinked at her for a few moments before she could let the full message sink in. Sidetracked, Shane shook her head. This was her life now, distracted, and turned on all the time. Enjoying the secret, they shared, their stolen moments, everything was new. Today his meeting was off-sight and would take him away for the majority of the day. Lunch would be late, but Shane didn’t care; she didn’t want food. Her body craved him, only him.
With Ryan out of the office, she could sink into the depth of work that waited for her. The morning flew by, and when she rose to fill her coffee, the hunger that seemed to elude her these days, growled deep in her belly.
Shane wandered her way through the cubical maze and realized her belly wasn’t the only thing that had been neglected; the break room was in sorry shape. The coffee pots were all but empty, sputtering out what was left of the morning batch. She started a new pot and searched the freezer in the hope of finding a forgotten frozen meal. Shane retrieved a freezer-burned lean cuisine - with her name scrawled across it in sharpie. Where she was excelling with her love life
this week, she was failing on sustenance. She popped it in the microwave and straightened while she waited, brewing coffee and stocking supplies. Didn’t anyone else do this? Angry, she knew her irritation would fall away with a coffee refill and lunch.
She listened to the hum of the office production alive outside the break room. The multi-faceted miracle printer worked overtime, making copies. It was a natural gathering place for office gossip, the constant chatter protected by the drone of the machine. As Shane listened, she could hear voices that rose and fell with the inflection of a story. She let the office gossip blend into the hum of the printer until she heard his name. "Ryan."
Ears alert now, she moved from her spot and busied herself closer to the open door so she could hear better. The drone of the printer fell away as she focused on the conversation. Two of the girls from accounting stood outside the break room by the printer. They were nameless girls, she exchanged smiles with in passing. The taller blond girl leaned into the shorter rounder brunette.
“I wonder what happened.” She paused thoughtfully. “He was so confident when he left today. He thought he had it”.
“I know. He’s been working on that deal for like…” She paused, considering, "Has it been six months?" The blond girl lowered her voice “I don’t know. It seems like that. He’s been bringing me travel invoices for a while now.”
The dark-haired girl leaned in, to her friend. “I used to be so nervous around him, but he’s really nice.”
“I know. Good looking, too. Did you see him this morning before he left?” Shane rolled her eyes at the swooning, and the round brunette continued, desperate in her knowledge to communication what appeared to be a failed deal. “I think Amanda was really counting on this one. Numbers have been down this quarter.”
“They were really throwing money at this deal. He hosts meetings and brings in lunch for everyone, even when they aren't in the same city. Pretty smart.”
The smaller girl was nodding now. "So smart. I don't think it was anything on Ryan's end. He's great."
“Right. And he’s so cute.” The girl paused. “I feel so bad for him.”
Shane was nodding too. Yes, she agreed. So cute. So…it fell through. Damn it. They had been so consumed with their extracurricular activity that they hadn’t spent much time talking about clients. It just hadn't come up. In her defense, the man was always working something new. He was excessively charming, and everyone loved him. Ryan had an innate ability to close the deal. So, this would be new. The first pot of coffee sputtered when it was done brewing. Shane crossed the room to continue the ruse of making busy so that she could listen to the girls on the other side of the wall.
“He thought he was in; he went to school with these guys or something. But I guess there is a problem with the Board.”
“Oh, the Board?” She scoffed. Isn’t it like some family-run thing?” the blond girl asked?
Jesus. The shit she did not know these days. Shane was all in now. She flipped back through her memory and settled on the start of this deal. He’d been working a campaign for a winery. They were out of California and Las Vegas. They were trying something new. She couldn’t pull up the details but yes, he'd been traveling a ton. He did that when he was working on a new ad campaign. As she pulled together pieces of conversations from the last few months, she realized she knew more than she thought she did. The winery was working with chefs in the top restaurants to pair their wine with the chef’s favorite dishes. She knew Ryan had a connection.
Shane listened to the girls; a third had joined now. This voice, she recognized the voice. It was Gina, a beautiful bubbly dark-haired girl.
“You guys. Oh, my God.”
Shane had to listen closely to hear what came next. The words were tumbling out in a storm. “Sarah’s gone.”
“What?” Her voice rose above the printer.
Gina shushed her. “Sarah’s gone. I guess she was having an affair with one of the top execs.
The brunette chimed in. “They’d been seeing each other for a while now.” Apparently, this was not new news.
“Really?” The blond hadn’t been in on it. “But he's married."
The statement hung in the air for only a moment before the brunette jumped to Sarah's defense. “He was really good to her, and she liked him a lot. He and his wife have been separated for like…” she paused, looking for the right time frame “months.”
Gina – “Yeah, well, he's gone too. They let her go, and he turned in his resignation. Intimate relations between co-workers is not something they are cool with around here."
Shane felt the air leave her body, an exhale that would be nearly silent except that the printer had stopped printing. She felt a shift, the girl’s conversation was no longer masked by the printer. It was quiet now. Their chatter quieted and became inaudible. The trio no longer trusting what appeared to be empty office space with the details. Shane retrieved her lunch and a coffee while the trio disbursed. When she walked out of the break room the office was empty.
There were rules about dating in the workplace, she and Ryan knew that. A blush rose in Shane’s cheeks with the memory of their indiscretions on the boardroom table, laid out for everyone to see. They were lucky that their escapade had been protected by a truly empty office.
CHAPTER 2
Task
S hane made her way back to her desk, settling into her chair. The printer was printing again. The hum droned through the air, irritating her with the normally invisible noise. Shane clicked onto her instant messages, searching for Ryan’s smiling face with his dark hair and ice-blue eyes. There he was. He stood at an angle gazing up, smiling. His white teeth flashing, a spark of humor in his eyes. The picture was taken by the marketing team last fall.
“Ry - you okay? What happened with the deal?”
She watched as three dots appeared. He was typing, an ellipse. She waited for a response that didn’t come. Ryan wasn’t typing anymore. The smiling picture of him told her politely, Ryan Jamison is away. She minimized the screen, her concern growing as another instant message popped up. This one bearing the picture of a dark-haired woman perfectly coiffed, her smile slightly strained. Her picture was also taken by the marketing team last summer. Dear Amanda, she did not love the camera.
Hi Shane, please come to my office. I have something to discuss with you. The concern in her belly born from the office chatter twisted into something darker. Fear for herself.
Shane’s relationship with Amanda was professional. The thought of their relationship always left Shane a little bit unnerved. Amanda was all work and no play. She loved Shane’s work ethic and lack of drama. What Shane managed and didn’t bring to Amanda was less work, for Amanda.
Amanda was a good boss, driven, straight forward, and direct. A 45-year-old single white female, climbing up the corporate ladder. She had a low tolerance for drama.
Be right there.
Shane stood and brushed at the wrinkles in her pants. Irritated at how rumpled she got when she sat. Amanda, on the other hand, always looked freshly pressed. The woman was pristine. Shane reached for a note pad and pen before she set off toward Amanda’s office. It was the big corner office that overlooked the business park. Not bad for a corporate ladder climber.
Shane knocked lightly on the closed door, “Amanda?”
“Shane,” Amanda smiled. “Come in.” The smile was strained, but genuine. There was worry in her eyes. “How is your day going?”
“Good, it’s good.” Shane reiterated. “Thanks for asking.” Shane smiled. Amanda liked nicety. She was lovely and supportive but didn’t want details. “How are you?”
“Wonderful. Thank you for asking.” She paused. “Shane, I have a special project that’s come up.” There it was, the root of the strain and cause of worry in her eyes. “I feel like you may be a good fit and wanted to discuss it with you.”
Amanda rose, and gracefully made her way to the door. She closed it before taking a seat in the chair beside Sha
ne.
“Are you familiar with the Rossi deal that Ryan has been working on?” Shane nodded. “Sure. Of course.” Amanda lowered her eyes thoughtfully. “I know you are part of the team that supports his sales efforts.” She spoke softly, more to herself than Shane.
Shane nodded, “Yes, I heard he had all but closed with them.” She walked carefully through the next statement, guarding her expression. “He had a meeting with them today, right?”
“He did, yes.” Amanda sat back in her chair and smoothed her skirt as she crossed her legs. Her fingers floated above her thighs, momentarily. If Shane hadn’t known what to look for, she wouldn’t have seen it.
Amanda’s fingers trembled with the weight of the news or task Amanda had to dole out. “There was a bit of a hiccup today. This is an important deal for the company, one that will launch us into a new arena.” Amanda looked down at her hands. One clasped firmly in the other. “It’s a deal we’ve quite confidently shared with our stakeholders as “done.” She took a deep breath and looked at Shane.
Shane nodded. She understood the issue. Premature disclosure of a done deal would be difficult to explain to their stakeholders if they couldn’t capture the business. It looked terrible; and was a blow to Amanda, personally. Amanda continued.
“The delay in actual closing is a bit concerning, but that’s how these things go sometimes. If we are going to capture this business and move to the next level, Ryan’s the one to help take us there.” Her hands had stopped trembling. Amanda’s brain was on to the solution. “He has the connection and the ability to bring this deal to fruition.” She lowered her voice. “I know there is talk circling through the rumor mill, please don’t participate. The deal is on the line. We thought we had it last week, this week we are back on the starting block. He had a personal relationship with these people, and right now, the ability of our company is in question.” Amanda paused briefly. “There is the secondary issue. Normally Sarah would travel with him going along to prepare all he needs for presentations, research, etc. She’s been quite effective in that role. However,” Shane knew what was coming.
The Boardroom Series – Complete Boxed Set (Boxes 1 – 6) : An office romance turned seductive submission Page 9