Chapter 3
Iobserve the woman in front of me, barely able to suppress my amusement. She looks at me like she’s seen a ghost, then quickly tries to mask the startled expression. But I don’t miss the way her chest turns pink, the way it rises and falls with each controlled breath, the way her eyes dart away from mine–looking at anything but me. She fidgets with her hands, her slender fingers playing with her long, cocoa-colored hair, before finally sinking into her chair.
I can’t say I care for the way her desk hides most of her body from my view.
Confused by her reaction to me, I wonder if I’ve met her before. Definitely haven’t fucked her. She’s not the type I go for, so at least I can rule that out. Plus, I’d remember someone as attractive as her.
Her dark hair falls in loose waves over her shoulder, and those brown eyes hold a look of innocence to them. My cock twitches as I imagine how pretty she’d look with my cum all over her face. By the time I was through with her, that innocence would be gone.
Forcing the image to the back of my mind, I cross the small lobby and head toward her desk to introduce myself. As I get closer, I can’t help but wonder if her hands are still fidgeting behind her desk. And where else that blush spread to. I bet her hair feels like silk.
Where the fuck did all that come from?
I’m saved from having to digest that thought when a man emerges from the hallway to the left of her desk. He stops short at seeing me, and I notice the immediate change in his posture once he recognizes who I am: the way his back straightens and he pulls his shoulders back, the small upward tilt of his jaw, the lazy strides he takes over to me.
“Mr. Raythorne.” He extends his hand as he reaches me. He gives me a firm handshake as he continues, “Adam Wright. Nice to finally meet you in person.”
“Emmett is fine, and likewise,” I say, returning his handshake with just as much strength.
I already know the game he’s going to play by the way he’s trying to carry himself around me. He wants me to think he doesn’t need me or my offer. He wants to come across as strong, and the one with all the power in our negotiations. Little does he know, there’s never been a single meeting I’ve entered where I haven’t been the one in total control. It’s how I make things happen. I control the outcome.
Adam gives me a slight nod and turns to his secretary, asking, “Is the conference room ready for us, Riley?”
“Yes,” she replies softly, giving him a small nod in return and still avoiding eye contact with me.
Riley… Why does that name sound so familiar?
“If you’ll follow me.” Adam motions for me to follow as he turns to head back down the hallway he emerged from. He starts talking about someone else joining us, but I”m not paying him any attention because at that moment, it clicks.
Riley. Riley Miles.
Also known as the unknown contact who was drunk texting and calling me last night, suggesting she wanted to hook up. I can’t hide my smirk as I focus my attention back on her and see that blush on her chest start to creep up her neck.
“Adam,” I call out to the man already halfway down the hall, but my eyes never leave Riley. “Would you give me a few minutes? I seem to have left my phone in the car,” I lie, wanting the excuse to stay up here with his secretary, but also liking that it’s putting me in control over when we start this meeting.
“I’ll have Miss Miles show me to the conference room,” I add on, making sure to use her last name so that she knows that I know who she is.
I take a glance at Adam, who starts to respond, then thinks better of it, simply nodding and disappearing down the hall instead. He already knows he’s losing the upper hand.
Once he’s safely out of sight, I focus all my attention back on Riley.
She’s turned her chair back toward her computer, scrolling through a spreadsheet, but she’s not actually looking at it. I can tell by the way she’s trying to control her breathing and working so hard at not noticing me. My smirk grows into a full grin as I walk to the front of her desk, putting myself directly in her line of vision. I lean against the elevated portion at the front and rest a forearm on it, taking her in.
Her skin is creamy and smooth, a sharp contrast to her long dark hair, and the outfit she’s wearing is just fitted enough across her chest for me to get a good idea of what’s underneath. She wears barely any makeup, and not an ounce of plastic anywhere. She’s exactly the opposite of what I go for. She’s so… pure.
Realizing I”m not actually leaving to go out to my car, she finally looks up at me and I can practically hear her heartbeat, she’s so nervous.
Good.
Something about seeing her squirm lights a fire in me, the heat running straight to my dick.
“Miss Miles,” I drawl, taking in the way she swallows at me using her last name. “How are you feeling this morning?” I don’t bother to hide my amusement. By the way she was slurring her words in our brief phone call last night, she’s probably hungover as fuck.
She bites on her bottom lip and that fire in me burns hotter. “Fine, thank you,” she responds. Then rushes out, “I’m sorry. About last night. It was unprofessional.”
“It was,” I reply, agreeing with her.
Her shoulders deflate at my honesty, and I chuckle, loving the way she breaks so easily. She’s too innocent, too pure for the harsh realities of my world. She probably thought I’d tell her it was okay, placate whatever feelings she has, but that’s not who I am. I’ll tell it like it fucking is, even at the expense of her feelings.
But that doesn’t mean I’m against being unprofessional with her.
“But,” I say, tapping my fingers casually on her desk, “you still haven’t clarified if you want to hook up.”
Her eyes go wide as she looks at me. I’m waiting for her to deny it, to tell me she was talking about someone else. Or to just flat out say no. I don’t expect what comes out of her mouth next.
“I’ll reach out to Tracy today and have her find someone else to help me.” Her hands fidget in her lap. “I’m sorry to have bothered you.”
“Stop apologizing.” My words come out harsher than she deserves, but it bothers me that she’s trying to dismiss me. “I’ve already gone over all the details of your purchase,” a lie, “so I’ll help with your closing.”
“Okay.” She looks down at her lap, then adds quietly, “And that text wasn’t about you.”
The fact that she won’t make eye contact with me tells me all that I need to know. She’s lying. And I can’t help how pleased that makes me. Because I would, without a doubt, hook up with her.
Ignoring the blood rushing to my dick, I push off her desk. “Glad that’s cleared up,” I tell her. When she finally looks up at me again, I give her a quick smirk before turning around the corner to find the conference room.
There’s something about her that has me sinking my claws in and not wanting to let go. Exactly the opposite of what I should be doing with her. The opposite of what I do with any women, for that matter. I don’t form attachments. I don’t stick around. I won’t cuddle you after I fuck you. If I buy you a drink after railing you in the club’s restroom, you’ve made it further than most women.
But fuck if I suddenly don’t want more of Riley. Maybe it’s her innocence. Maybe it’s the way I make her squirm. Or perhaps it’s all the ways I can imagine ruining her. Whatever it is, I’m not letting her go now.
I’ll be the one doing the dismissing. And Riley? She can only hope it will be sooner rather than later.
I slouch into my chair when Emmett finally goes back to the conference room. The man is intimidating as hell, which did nothing to help my embarrassment about last night. I’m pretty sure he saw right through my lie, too, given the dark look and smirk he gave me before leaving.
I swear my life is just a series of unfortunate events at this point. It’d be just my luck that the one person I would have given anything to avoid was also the same person meeting with my boss this morning.
I can’t help the laugh that escapes remembering the sight of Adam meeting Emmett–the posturing he did. I swear, it’s always a dick measuring contest with men. Adam is attractive, there’s no denying that. He’s got the salt and pepper look going for him, and he’s built. You’d never guess the guy is nearing fifty. He’s successful, a majority partner in Wright and Co.–the investment firm he started decades ago–drives a fancy car that costs more than he’ll ever pay me in a year. He has a lot going for him.
But Adam is an asshole. Even he’ll tell you that. Still, he pays better than most secretarial jobs, and I”m basically given free rein most days to do as I please. I have plenty of work, but he isn’t breathing over my shoulder or micro-managing. As long as everything is finished on time and I’m here during office hours, he doesn’t really care what I do.
Just so happens that every interaction I do have with him, he’s a raging dick. So I make sure all my work is done on time, and he leaves me alone.
At first I felt bad for the guy. His wife left him shortly before I was hired, and I thought maybe that was why he was always so rude to me during my first few days on the job. Turns out he was banging his former secretary and his wife found out and left. Then his secretary found out about his wife and decided she’d had enough as well. She put in her two-week notice, and Adam was more upset about losing his secretary than he was about his wife. And I had the pleasure of getting all the gossip from said secretary during the week of training she gave me.
She was a sweet girl, but I was ready for our training to be over by the end of that week. The amount of detail she shared about Adam had me almost quitting before I’d barely even gotten started. I didn’t want the first images of my new boss being of him bending his secretary over his desk every day at lunch and banging her from behind.
The saddest part about it all was that she seemed to genuinely like him, and had no idea he was married the entire six months she’d been working here and hooking up with him.
So seeing Adam realize he isn’t the biggest shark out there gave me a sick sense of satisfaction.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful for this job. I was in a bad spot and desperately needed one when he hired me, but fuck him for cheating on his wife. He deserves to be taken down a peg, and if Emmett’s the one to do it, so be it.
Grabbing my coffee that I never touched, I head back toward the break room to brew a new cup, mine having gone cold. Adam steps out of the conference room just as I reach my destination.
“Oh, good,” he says upon noticing me. “Make Emmett an espresso.”
“Of course,” I respond, lacing my voice with as much sugar as I can muster, but dying at the fact that I’m going to have to interact with Emmett again. My stomach does a little flop.
Adam turns to leave, then adds, “Make one for Rick, too. He should be here any minute now.”
I nod and head for the espresso machine. Rick is both Adam’s personal attorney and the investment firm’s legal representation. Whatever is going down in that meeting must be big if he’s involved.
Once both espressos are ready, I square my shoulders and head toward the conference room, trying to portray more confidence than I actually feel.
I shouldn’t be so flustered. So I drunkenly sent the guy a few texts. And then called him. It’s not like I was sending him dirty pictures and inviting him over. Yes, I should have waited until today to reach out to him, but still, I didn’t do anything wrong. Unprofessional, yes. But wrong? No. Maybe questionable and arguably kind of slutty, but not wrong. Right?
We just got off to a rocky start. Water under the bridge. He’s helping represent me for the purchase of my home and I”m his client. We’re professional acquaintances and nothing more.
So why the hell is my stomach fluttering with nerves right now?
Reaching the conference room door, the ceramic espresso cups clink against the little saucers I’m holding as my hands shake. I take a minute to calm my racing heart before pushing through the door that Adam thankfully left cracked open for me.
Adam sits at the head of the large conference room table with Emmett to his left. Our office is a corner building, so the entire wall behind Emmett is windows, showcasing the traffic and pedestrians running about their day. The bottom floor has the reception area, break room, conference room, and a couple of smaller offices, mostly used for storage. The second floor is where the action usually is, as that’s where the four investment partners actually work. It’s got large office suites with a balcony seating area that overlooks my desk and the entry. More than once, I’ve seen Adam on the balcony with clients having a drink or a cigar.
The entire building has an industrial feel, with exposed brick and metal beams. It has those fancy, oversized Edison style light bulbs hanging from long, black cords in all the offices. Looks great, but the lighting is shit once it gets dark out. I’ll never understand people”s obsession with appearance over function when designing these buildings.
I make my way toward Emmett, who looks up from the financial report he’s holding when he hears me approach. As his eyes meet mine, a slow smile spreads across his face.
I try to ignore how sexy that smile is with his dark stubble and strong jaw.
Professional acquaintances. Professional acquaintances. Nothing else.
My eyes dart to the floor as I continue toward him, unable to hold his gaze. That’s the smile of a man who knows the effect he’s having on me, and I don’t like it one bit. The smile or the effect.
I set the cup of espresso down in front of him just as Adam’s phone rings.
“I need to take this,” he says, not bothering to spare us a glance. “Excuse me for a moment.”
Adam heads out of the conference room, phone to his ear, and I round the table to set the other espresso cup down in the spot opposite Emmett. I’m getting ready to make my escape when his cool voice flows across the table.
“Are you aware of what Adam did with his last secretary?” he asks.
His words have me nearly choking on my spit. Maybe I’ve gone crazy and am hearing things. I dare a glance in his direction and find him leaning back in his chair, a smug look on his face. His fingers are casually interlocked in front of him while his eyes drill holes into me. This asshole…
“How do you know about that?” I manage to squeak out.
“It’s my job to know about the people I’m considering doing business with.”
“Their sex life hardly seems relevant,” I snap. Never did I think I’d be defending Adam, much less the fact he had an affair, and yet here we are.
Emmett gets up from his chair and rounds the table, his fingertips dragging against the polished wood tabletop as he goes. He wears all black–the embodiment of sin–with the top button of his shirt undone and revealing more hints of the tattoos I spied in his headshot. He moves with tightly controlled grace, like a caged animal waiting to break free from its confines.
I swallow, my stomach twisting with nervousness as he approaches.
When he’s standing in front of me, he leans forward, bracing his hands on the table on either side of me and caging me in. My ass pushes into the table, and I reach a hand behind me as I lean back awkwardly, desperately trying to create space between us.
“You think it’s a coincidence you look like her?” he asks, entirely too close for comfort.
What the hell? I guess we kind of look similar, but why is he telling me this?
He brings a hand up to push my hair behind my shoulder. His fingers graze my skin, and I ignore the tingle they leave behind.
“Did you know he fired the secretary before her after he got tired of fucking her?” he continues. His hand comes to my chin, grasping it and forcing me to look at him again.
“I’m not sleeping with him,” I whisper, suddenly feeling the need to defend myself. Not that it’s any of his business if I was sleeping with my boss.
My heart thunders in my chest, and I have to fight the emotion threatening to surface. Swallowing down the lump in my throat, I try my best to keep a neutral look on my face.
I don’t know if I’m upset because he implied I’m sleeping with my boss, or because I didn’t notice the resemblance between myself and Elle, the previous secretary. Or maybe I’m just upset that he had the nerve to point it out. Still, I can’t help but wonder now what the secretary before her was like.
“I know.” He drops his hand and steps back. “But if he’s willing to lie and cheat and fuck his way through his employees, why should I trust anything he tells me?” He nods to the financial reports I put together last night. “I’m guessing you put those together. Do you really think those numbers are accurate?”
I look away from him again, not wanting to answer because I honestly don’t know.
“The best indicator of future behavior is past behavior, Riley. If Adam was willing to screw someone in the past, I’m guessing he’d be willing to do it again.” I don’t miss the double meaning. It’s a word of caution not only for himself, but for me, too.
Emmett returns to his seat just as Adam walks back through the door. I don’t look at either of them as I leave the room and head back to my desk.
I fall into my chair, on edge and mind racing, as I pull out my phone to text Tracy.
Me:I’m sorry to bug you. I know you’re flying out tonight, but I need you to find someone else to cover for you next week.
I set my phone to the side and pull up my work email, looking to distract myself from how I”m feeling, but it’s useless. My mind keeps going back to the conference room and everything Emmett said.
Did Adam really hire me in the hopes that I’d sleep with him? He’s never made a move on me. Hell, he barely even manages a ‘good morning’ to me. We’ll go days without interacting, and I wouldn’t say we’ve ever really been friendly to each other.
No. He might have slept with his other secretaries, but that’s not what his intention was with me. There’s no way. He wouldn’t be so hostile if it were.
And I doubt the financials I pulled are inaccurate either. He may be a piece of shit for cheating on his wife, but he wouldn’t do anything illegal. He’s too invested in his business to fudge numbers.
Convincing myself that Emmett is wrong, I get to work on my emails, responding to the urgent ones first. I’m halfway through clearing out my inbox when Tracy finally responds.
Tracy:Why? You haven’t even met him yet.
I groan. I had hoped she would just agree and not ask questions, but I should have known better.
How do I even begin to explain to her that I don’t want to work with him? I can barely explain it to myself. Is it because I embarrassed myself last night? Because he implied I was sleeping with my boss? Or is it because the way he looks at me makes me so damn nervous my brain doesn’t even function?
None of that is even really his fault. Well, other than the sleeping with my boss part, but I get the point he was trying to make. And he didn’t actually accuse me of anything. More like warned me about something I hadn’t even realized up until that point.
Me:Nevermind, it’s fine. Safe travels! Bring me back something nice :P
Tracy:Don’t dodge my question. Why don’t you want to work with him?
Fuuuck. I shouldn’t have said anything. I wrack my brain, trying to come up with a realistic excuse, all the while praying Emmett doesn’t walk out into the lobby and make me change my mind about working with him yet again.
I decide on a half truth.
Me:He just seems intimidating, and you know how I feel about men lately.
Tracy:You haven’t even met him! I’m sure he’s a gentleman. You’ll be fine.
I snort. Gentleman, my ass. I think he enjoys making me nervous.
I go to set my phone aside, resigning to my defeat, when it vibrates again.
Tracy:And yes. I’ll bring you something nice.
A smile finds my lips. Tracy may be over the top sometimes, but she’s the closest thing I have to family, and I love her more than anything. Even if she is insufferable when it comes to trying to set me up with men.
I spend the next hour forcing myself to stay focused on work. Thankfully, neither Adam nor Emmett bother me. By the time I’m grabbing my purse to head out for lunch, they”re still in the conference room.
I put my ear against the door and can hear Rick’s muffled voice. I don’t want to interrupt, so I place a sticky note on Adam”s desk letting him know I’ll be back at 12:30 and head out for lunch.