One Hot Moment
Chapter One
Spencer
I settle onto my new chair, which sits in my new office, and glance around furtively to make sure no one else can see me. The office door is shut. The floor-to-ceiling windows behind me are mirrored on the outside for privacy. I”m also on the seventh floor, so it”s unlikely anyone will catch me in the act.
Ready. Set. Go.
I push my chair back, fold my knees up, and spin the chair around and around, over and over, while grinning and laughing like a moron. For the pièce de résistance, I fling my arms wide.
”Mr. Halfenaked? Are you okay?”
Oh, bloody hell.I”ve been caught bang to rights, though I doubt anyone would arrest me for this ridiculous crime. I slam my foot down on the floor, halting my chair, and face the woman who spoke to me. She”s lovely. Her green eyes sparkle, and her pale red hair hangs down her back in a long braid. An image flashes in my mind of this woman straddling my lap while I tug that braid, exposing the sensual column of her throat.
”Mr. Halfenaked?”
I clear my throat and straighten my tie. ”Yes, that”s me. But I would prefer it if you called me Spencer.”
”All right.” She settles her lovely arse onto one of two chairs that sit opposite my desk. ”Allow me to introduce myself. I”m Tabitha Remington, your corporate administrative assistant.”
Should I reach across the desk to shake hands with her? I”ve no idea. None of my previous jobs included an assistant, not even a secretary. When I finally got the promotion I”d been hoping for, it came with one large string. I had to move to America.
Well, this country is looking bloody fantastic to me right now. Or rather, the redhead smiling at me does.
I adjust my tie, though it doesn”t need adjusting. ”No one told me I would have an assistant.”
”You are the chief financial risk analyst at Bramson Feigenbaum Investments, one of the largest companies of its kind in the US.”
”I see your point. Sorry. I”ve never been important enough to rate an assistant, so it might take me a while to get used to the idea.”
”Sure, I get it.” She smiles brightly. ”I”m here to help you in any way I can and provide whatever you might need.”
My cock has loads of ideas about what I might need this woman to do for me. But I tell it to bugger off. ”Did you say your name is Tabitha Remington? That”s quite unusual. But as a man with the most ridiculous surname in history, I won”t hold your name against you. I like Tabitha. It”s rather sweet.”
”Thank you. Did I pronounce your name correctly?”
”Yes, unfortunately you did. It”s just like it looks. Half-naked. But I promise I will never be half-naked in your presence.”
She laughs again. ”I think you and I will get along swimmingly.”
”I don”t know how to swim.”
”Don”t worry. I can give you lessons.”
Now I”m picturing Tabitha in a bikini, helping me master the breaststroke. Bollocks. I shouldn”t have imagined that. Never in my life have I behaved like a randy schoolboy, not even when I was one. Maybe it”s just been too bloody long since I had a good shag. All work and no play makes Mr. Halfenaked want to become Mr. Allnaked.
I set my elbows on my desk and tap my fingers on the desk calendar. ”So, how do we begin? I”ve never been in charge of an entire department before, and I will need shedloads of help from my assistant.”
”Don”t worry. I can handle your needs.” She points at my computer. ”We can begin by going over the new system. It”s different from the one you used back in London.”
”Of course it is. Having the same system for every office around the world would be too convenient.”
”Well, the tech folks have to justify their high salaries somehow.”
I grin at her. ”I like you, Tabitha. You”re straightforward, unlike most of the people I”ve worked with.”
”Thank you, Spencer. I like you too. You”re funny and sweet.”
Well, if she likes my humor... ”Your last name is Remington. Is that like the American artist? Or like the guns?”
”Whichever you prefer.”
”The artist is the safer bet. I wouldn”t want you to shoot me if I get too cheeky.”
Her smile broadens even more, and she laughs heartily. ”I would never shoot a man who”s as cute as you are.”
Cute? No one has ever called me that. But I have a feeling ”cute” means that she has no interest in shagging me. But I won”t do that anyway, so it doesn”t matter what she thinks. No, I absolutely will not get a leg over with my assistant who I met five minutes ago.
Work is all I care about, anyway. I”m married to my job.
Tabitha is still smiling at me. ”You aren”t at all what I expected you to be. I”d heard that you were a hard-nosed analyst who volunteers to work overtime and never takes a vacation.”
Blimey. Is that what my coworkers back in London think of me?
The beautiful girl sitting across from me taps a rectangular object on her thigh. It”s a tablet computer, I suddenly realize as she flips the leather case open and taps rapidly on the touch screen. After a moment, she veers her gaze away from the device and to me instead. ”Let”s get your orientation started.”
”Is it normal for an administrative assistant to do that? I thought you would mostly answer the phone and take messages.”
”Yes, I do that. But I”m a full-service assistant. And besides, the company believes that a new executive will flourish if they”re given the proper orientation.”
”That does make sense.” I find myself relaxing, leaning back into my chair. I feel less anxious, and I think that”s because of Tabitha. She”s a bloody brilliant assistant. ”Where do we start the orientation?”
”First, I”d like to show you around your office.”
”It isn”t that big. I don”t think I”ll get lost.”
She smiles again, and I rather wish she wouldn”t. I”ve never seen anyone smile with such genuine sweetness. It”s distracting.
”I know you won”t get lost,” Tabitha says. ”But you might not be able to find the items you need. Let”s get up, and I”ll show you around your personal executive space.”
”That”s a wordy way of saying ”office,” isn”t it? ”Personal executive space” sounds like a room where we lock up our assistants overnight.”
Her laughters tickles my senses. ”You”re so funny, Spencer. I bet everyone at your old job loved you.”
”Not quite. They thought I was a robot. Literally. I was the bloke who worked eighty hours per week.”
She bites her upper lip briefly, studying me. ”You must have done that so you could get a promotion, right?”
”No. I just prefer to be at work.”
”I see.” Tabitha gazes at me for another moment or two, then becomes her cheerful self again. ”Are you ready now?”
I rise and straighten my suite jacket, my tie too. ”Let”s begin the tour.”
Tabitha rises too and cradles her tablet in one hand as she comes around to my side of the desk. ”Okay, let”s start with your new tablet.”
”Will I need to climb up Mount Sinai to retrieve it?”
”Mount Sinai?” An adorable wrinkle appears above her nose, right between her eyebrows. For a moment, she simply stares at me that way. Then she bursts out laughing. ”That was a good one, Spencer. Very clever. I almost didn”t get it, but then I realized what you meant. No, you won”t need to climb up that mountain to retrieve any tablets. That”s Moses”s job.”
”I don”t often get biblical, but I couldn”t resist. Wasn”t sure you”d grasp my meaning. Most people don”t understand my humor.”
”Really? I can”t believe that.”
I set my fingertips on the desktop, gazing down at it. ”I don”t think I need you to tell me about office supplies. It”s bog standard, I assume.”
”Yes, what”s on your desk is. But we”ve got some new things that I bet you haven”t seen yet.”
I move my eyes only to glance at her sideways. ”You know what ”bog standard” means?”
”Yep. I studied up on British slang when I heard you were coming to work here.”
”They teach that in America?”
Her soft laughter is so charming that I want to kiss her. ”Nobody teaches British slang, as far as I know. But you can find pretty much anything on the internet.”
”Not me. If I type in ”blue ballpoint pen,” the internet shows me red apples.”
Tabitha touches my arm. ”Don”t worry. I can do all the online shopping for you. Now, shall we move on to the file cabinets? I”ll need to explain the way I file things, otherwise you won”t have a clue.”
”Sounds intriguing. Let”s do that.”
My assistant leads me over to the corner where three file cabinets hunker against the wall. Each cabinet has three drawers. Tabitha opens the top drawer in the first cabinet, showing me her filing system. It involves folders and tabs and subfolders with their own tabs. The words on each tab have been printed, not handwritten. In my old office, I scrawled those things myself. Her way is better. I have ruddy awful handwriting. It”s all going smoothly until...
Tabitha kneels to open the last drawer, and I get a fantastic view of her arse.
No matter how hard I try, I can”t stop staring at those round cheeks and the way her skirt stretches tightly over them. My cock is rousing, and I don”t know if I can prevent myself from getting hard.
Oh, perfect. I”m going to be sacked on day one.