Chapter 3
Three
S teph had insisted that Jon drop her at the tube station to avoid anyone seeing them arrive together, drawing conclusions about them, especially the right ones.
She arrived in the accounts department and felt odd going into Dave’s office, so chose to sit at her own desk and was still there when Dave arrived behind her. “I thought you were using my office today?”
“I know, but I didn’t want people to get the wrong idea,” she explained.
“Sod ‘em. I will be back later this afternoon to hand over my diary and stuff, but in the meantime you should get settled in my office because you can’t discuss prospective investments with new clients in your pod,” he sensibly pointed out.
Steph shrugged her agreement when the sound of the phone ringing from Dave’s office halted their conversation further. Dave looked at Steph and gestured for her to go and answer the phone. She duly obliged and almost broke into a canter as she went to pick up.
“Miss Pryor, good morning. How are you this morning?” came Jon’s voice down the phone line a little too brightly.
“I am fine, as I was at breakfast.” She smiled.
“Glad to hear it. Now I have given your holiday selections to our people and asked them to email you their comparable deals, but I have called about business; Peter Robertson, Jonah Mason and Gordon Alexander are from the Richards retail group and they are due here at half past ten to discuss what they want from us in terms of investment and what we will get in return.”
“Right,” replied Steph.
“But I am tied up with Dave, so I will meet you and them in accounts at half ten and then leave you to it, darling, but can we have a working lunch at one to discuss your meeting with them?”
Steph felt reassured that he really was talking business, but somehow she missed her cue to reply.
“Steph? Stephanie are you still there?” he asked impatiently.
“Sorry. Can I invite Sonia Hansen to join me if she’s free?” Steph immediately went on to explain the reason for her request. “She knows retail better than me and will come from a different perspective and her quarterly figures were impressive in spite of a recession and she hasn’t had her busiest period yet.”
“Yeah, good idea. I’ll call her and ask her to meet you in your office,” he said.
“Dave’s office,” she corrected.
“What?” asked Jon sounding irritated again.
“I meant it’s Dave’s office, not mine,” she replied, reluctantly now.
“Don’t be so pedantic. It’s an office, that’s all. I will see you at half past ten.” Jon hung up, leaving Steph staring down at the receiver.
“And goodbye to you too!” She sighed before returning to her emails.
It was just after quarter past ten when she received a call to say that her visitors had arrived. She asked for them to be directed to the lift to her floor where she would wait for them. She had just reached the bank of lifts when one of them arrived containing Jon.
“Miss Pryor, how lovely to see you again.” He grinned.
“Mr Brooker.”
“How is your head now?” He looked down at her intensely.
“Fine, thank you, but I expect no sympathy for my self-inflicted ailments.”
“Then you will not be disappointed,” he said, still smiling.
“I rarely am with you.” She smiled back thinking she was incapable of not being happy around him.
“Rarely?” he asked sounding affronted.
“I didn’t mean for that to sound quite as it did, sorry.” She could feel that she was about to ramble.
“Your skirt is very tight across your arse!” he said bluntly.
“You don’t like it?” she asked unable to fathom what was going on in his eyes and behind them in his mind.
“Your arse? I certainly do like it.” He grinned again. “I’m its number one fan. You need to walk in front of me today,” he told her.
“You are most unprofessional, Mr Brooker!” she chastised him.
“You wait til lunch if you think this is unprofessional,” he said darkly.
“Your tie is crooked,” she stammered as she resisted the temptation to stretch up and straighten it for him.
He opened his mouth to speak when one of the other lifts opened to reveal Sonia and three suited men who looked at Steph as one asked, “Miss Pryor?”
Steph nodded and extended her hand to each of the men in turn who introduced themselves as Peter Robertson, Jonah Mason and Gordon Alexander from the Richards retail group. She then introduced them to Jon and Sonia before leading them across the accounts department and into the office she was struggling to call her own.
They all sat around her desk with the exception of Jon who remained standing as Steph’s temporary assistant appeared.
“Can I get you all some tea or coffee?” asked Rosie, making Steph grin broadly to be reunited with her former assistant, albeit temporarily.
“A pot of each and five cups, please.”
“Five cups?” asked Peter Robinson.
“Yes, Mr Brooker isn’t staying for the meeting,” Steph said bluntly making Jon smile.
“Alas, no, I have other plans today, but Miss Pryor is more than capable of answering any questions you have,” Jon assured them.
“But the deal . . .” began Jonah.
“The deal is for you to sell to Miss Pryor and Ms Hansen, not me. Miss Pryor will undoubtedly ask some awkward questions, but if you can convince her that your company is worth investing in and she is happy with the figures, then the deal is on. She is the one you need to impress, not me,” Jon said to the three gentlemen before turning to Steph. “One o’clock in my office please Miss Pryor, and Andrea will arrange lunch.”
Steph nodded. “Of course, Mr Brooker.”
“Oh and thanks for dropping everything this morning, Sonia,” he said as he looked at the other woman before turning to leave.
“So, gentlemen, why don’t you tell me what the deal is you are offering and then we can renegotiate it,” said Steph as Rosie reappeared with the tea and coffee.
“How do you know that the deal will need renegotiating?” asked Gordon curtly.
“Because nobody ever offers the best deal straight off, so shall we begin?” replied Steph equally as curt making Sonia smile at her.
It was a quarter to one as the meeting wrapped up and Steph felt that the deal on offer was a realistic one now.
“I just need to confirm all of the figures you have quoted, so if you can have the accounts and stuff couriered over this afternoon,” said Steph seriously.
“This afternoon?” asked Jonah.
“Yes, is that a problem?” replied Steph.
“No, of course not,” interrupted Peter.
“Good, then I can include that detail in my briefing with Mr Brooker shortly,” she told them as she stood up to indicate that the meeting was over.
Steph escorted the three men downstairs and then returned to the lift with Sonia who was heading up to her own office for a lunch meeting of her own.
“Brooker is seriously into you,” Sonia told Steph making her a little uncomfortable. “I don’t think I have ever seen him displaying such confidence in anyone like he does in you and he likes your arse.” She laughed as Steph blushed. “But what’s not to like, it’s peachy.” She laughed again as the lift stopped at her floor and she left Steph alone as she rode the lift to the twenty-third floor where Jon was talking to Andrea about his diary when she arrived.
“Go in, Steph, I will be two minutes.”
She entered his office and smiled at the selection of seafood on his desk laid for two.
“I’d like to tell you that it was all my own handy work,” said Jon from behind her.
“And I’d like to tell you that I’m not allergic to it,” she replied as she turned to face him.
“Really?” he asked nervously.
“Fraid so.” She felt guilty at his expression of disappointment. “Don’t worry about it, I am really not that hungry, not for food anyway.” She was already reaching up to straighten his still crooked tie.
“Miss Pryor, what are you suggesting?” He arched a brow.
“Well, as I have been living the life of a vestal virgin since Sunday night.” She lifted herself up onto the edge of his desk and wrapped her legs around his hips, pulling him towards her by his tie.
“You are a very naughty girl,” he whispered huskily as he buried his face into her neck.
“And what could you do about that?” she asked in a low moan.
“Oh darling, I know what I would like to do to you, right here across my desk,” he told her making a fist in her hair to pull her head back making her moan again.
“That sounds so much better than lunch,” she said seriously as she stretched up and attempted to reach his lips.
“You are not conducive to working lunches when you are in this mood and have your tight skirt stretched across your beautiful arse,” he told her as his hands moved down and cupped her behind making her squeal.
“I think you mean my peachy arse,” she corrected him.
“What?”
“Sonia reckons you like my arse and that it is peachy.” She laughed.
“She is right on both counts which makes me a very lucky boy,” he agreed as he teased Steph by circling his lips around her face as if she were his prey. “We should talk business,” he whispered in her ear.
“After, kiss me first, please,” she pleaded.
“Well, since you ask so nicely.” His mouth immediately covered hers before accepting the invitation of her open lips.
He smiled as he felt her legs tighten their grip around him and her hands running across his back through his shirt while their tongues began to dance to an all too familiar and natural feeling beat.
“We should discuss business now,” he told her as he pulled his lips free of hers.
“Or you could just take my clothes off and bend me over your desk and fuck me,” she said as she tried to engage his lips in an encore of the performance they had just been doing with hers.
He studied her expression and smiled as he allowed one of his hands to release her leg from behind him and trace a path from her knee up her inner thigh making her gasp as he reached the bare flesh between her stocking top and her underwear. His fingers moved higher, almost painfully slowly prompting her to edge forward on the desk to get the contact where she wanted it.
He shook his head at her. “So impatient, darling.” He grinned down at her as he felt the warmth and wetness of her knickers and her body beyond them.
As first one and then a second finger made their way beneath the lacy barrier, she let out a moan, a groan and something resembling a gasp all at once.
“I’ve missed you,” she whispered as he leaned down to kiss her gently while his fingers disappeared within her, making her cry out loudly.
“Do not bring your laptop home this weekend, I have other plans for you,” he told her.
“Okay.” She looked most disappointed as he removed his hands from her body completely.
“We need to talk business, darling, or I will be fucking you on my desk all afternoon and we both have other things to do.”
“Not better things though.” She smiled despite her obvious disappointment.
“No, not better, but maybe more pressing,” he suggested.
“I can’t think of anything more pressing and doubt that I will be able to think of anything else all afternoon.” She meant every word.
“Good.” He pulled her off his desk.
They sat at the desk and as Jon ate lunch Steph sipped a bottle of water and ran through the proposed details of the deal from Richards’s retail group.
“But I have asked for the figures and accounts to be couriered over this afternoon, just to confirm their information,” she told him trying to stay focused on business now.
“When you have received them let me know and we can arrange another appointment with them after you have finalised your findings and the deal we’ll propose.”
“I don’t think they were too thrilled to have a mere accountant chairing their meeting.” The men she’d met with had been clear in that opinion. “And I don’t know when I am available until Dave has handed over his diary.”
“There’s unlikely to be anything that can’t be moved, but we’ll see and you are many things, but not merely anything, darling, and I don’t care whether they were happy or not. I was happy with you chairing the meeting and that’s all that matters. The other appointment I had lined up for you this afternoon has been postponed,” he told her.
“Okay,” she replied without asking for any more details.
“I have to get back to quarterly figures with Dave, your quarterly figures, which are spot on.” His expression and tone made his approval obvious.
Steph stood up and prepared to leave and was about to kiss him goodbye when Andrea called through with an urgent call interrupting the moment, an urgent call of a personal nature was what Andrea had called it. Steph pushed all ideas of what that might be from her mind and just waved, leaving him watching her over exaggerated swing of her hips with a huge grin on his face.
Dave had finished handing over his diary which was relatively sparse as far as Steph was concerned making her wonder how she would get through every day in the office without more work to do. She kept her thoughts to herself and wished Dave well with his holiday and his wife and was slightly relieved when he left her alone.
Rosie appeared shortly after with a message from Steve Cannon requesting her advice in legal. She was waiting for the lift when Jon text her.
Are you done for the day? Was thinking we could skive off, maybe even go away for the weekend? Jon x
On way to legal, so unable to skive off just yet. Have got info from Richards’ group. Would that be a dirty weekend Mr Brooker? Steph x
Why are you going to legal? A very, very dirty weekend Miss Pryor! Jon x
She was stepping out of the lift and heading towards Steve’s office as she replied.
Steve has summoned me to legal. I will be as quick as I can and will meet you back at mine with my very, very dirty weekend bag. Maybe I could bring Richards’ figures with me. Steph x
Do not stay at work any longer than you have to. I had some things to attend to across town so won’t bother coming back. No! No computer and no files. Jon x
“Steph, Steph,” called a voice from behind her and as she turned to find Martin looking back at her she wasn’t quite sure what to say or do.
“Hi, Martin. How are you? Are you my replacement here?” The answer was rather obvious based on the fact he was sitting at a desk.
“Yes, but I am a poor substitute for you. The legal lingo confuses me.” He offered her a half-smile. “But you’re here still,” he added confused.
“Yes, I am temping here, in accounts.” She was telling the truth essentially.
“Good, I mean I’m glad that you found something after Bakers. There were all kinds of rumours about your hasty exit from there, you and Rosie together.”
Steph felt a little uncomfortable as she considered whether Martin was up for sharing details or maybe he was just fishing.
“Rumours weren’t something there was ever a shortage of over there, were they?”
“Yeah, but if you are in over the next few Wednesdays would you be interested in catching up?” Martin sounded sincere.
“Yeah, sure. I’ll come down and see you sometime, when I’m free.”
She smiled as Steve appeared across the office. “When you’re ready, Miss Pryor,” he called sounding impatient and annoyed at her. She dashed across the office and as she reached Steve he explained his tone as he ushered her into his office, “Sorry, I didn’t want him to suspect that you were anything other than a lowly employee.”
“Which is exactly what I am, and a temp to boot.”