7. Byron Graham
7
BYRON GRAHAM
I had never been so happy to be at work in all my life.
The office represented a predictable routine, even when Sebastian was in one of his unpredictable moods and wanted to shake things up. My morning began with coffee and emails. By the time I finished my coffee, Kaylan would be arriving. He would bring some pleasant chitchat and an eagerness to dive into the day that matched my own.
As soon as we had our schedule worked out, Sebastian would arrive. At that point, I’d give him a rundown of his first meetings of the day, calls that needed to be made, and reports that needed his attention. From there, he would either roll with things or completely blow all our plans out of the water.
Routine was what I needed after spending Sunday alternating between denial and panic. Of course, that didn’t include the time I’d needed to jerk off because my insane boss had left me with such a state of blue balls that I couldn’t remember my goddamn name.
So yeah, Sunday was jerking off, panic, anger, temptation, more jerking off, followed by more panic.
What was I supposed to say to him?
Putting aside the fact that it was billboard-on-the-side-of-the-road obvious that I was attracted to him, could I really date him? Even though he’d said it was okay that I accept the bargain simply for the money, wouldn’t that always be in the back of his mind? Would he ever believe me if I professed to care for him?
Who would turn down that kind of life-changing money? I might have integrity, but I wasn’t stupid. It wasn’t just a better life for me, but it would improve things for Ronnie and my mom. The money I would have been spending on Ronnie could be used to get my mom better help. She could finally break free of her alcoholism and live a happier life. Maybe even get a new job or at least volunteer. Something that made her happier than sitting around the house doing nothing other than watching TV and getting drunk.
But what would happen after the ten years were up? How would I pay for Ronnie’s new facility and my mom’s assistance?
Well, if I were still with Sebastian…
No!
I would not think like that. Sebastian was not my personal fix-it-all.
I could do this on my own. Ten years was plenty of time to make improvements in my life, so I could afford Ronnie’s new facility and my mom’s improved support system.
Was I truly considering this?
I was.
God help me, I was.
If I were honest with myself, it wasn’t only about the money. Sebastian was right. If he wasn’t my boss and he had hit on me in the bookstore, I would have been on him in an instant.
But if I did this, no one could ever find out. My reputation would be ruined. People in the business world gossiped. Even after I found a new job, people would find out that I’d fucked the boss.
Plus, I loved working for Courtland Enterprises. I didn’t want to leave. The idea of being the CFO’s assistant didn’t exactly thrill me, but Declan Foster was a good, patient man who worked hard and was dedicated to Courtland Enterprises. I loved being Sebastian’s assistant, but if we were dating, I would still get to see him frequently.
I jerked my head up at a sudden knock on the doorframe of my office to find Kaylan standing in the open doorway, a smile on his lips. Shit! He was here.
“Good morning. Everything okay? You looked pretty lost in thought,” he said.
“Oh, yes. I…yes. Lost in thought.” I wasn’t making any sense. Time had flown by me. I’d managed to get only a fraction of my usual work done prior to Kaylan’s arrival. I hadn’t even gotten my coffee yet or finished compiling my notes for Sebastian’s meetings.
Shaking off my temporary brain fog, I got up from my desk and followed Kaylan to the coffee station in our small break room.
The top floor of the Courtland Enterprises building held a luxurious lobby filled with green leafy plants, colorful bouquets that changed with the seasons, and large comfortable sofas and chairs around coffee tables. At the end nearest the elevators was a large conference room that seated twenty-five people comfortably and two huge flat-screen TVs on the walls for presentations and web conferencing.
At the opposite end, after you walked through the lobby seating, you reached Kaylan’s desk. His job—other than assisting me with various tasks—was to greet anyone who tried to see Sebastian during the day. Even if they had a scheduled meeting or appointment, they had to get through Kaylan first.
Past Kaylan were two large offices—one for Sebastian as the CEO and the other for John Courtland, Sebastian’s father and the company’s chairman.
Just outside of Sebastian’s office, there were two smaller offices. To the left was mine. It was a modest size, but unlike Kaylan’s area, I had walls and a door, which allowed me to make private calls without anyone overhearing me.
To the right was a partially hidden office for Sebastian’s on-duty bodyguard, which was Carl most days. A push of a button could summon him instantly. There was an emergency call switch that alerted him hidden under my desk, Kaylan’s desk, and Sebastian’s. During my time in Sebastian’s employ, I’d needed to push it only once, and that was when a former employee had lost his shit after being fired for corporate espionage. It had been an ugly scene, and I prayed I’d never have to push it again.
We took turns making coffee at the Keurig machine and doctoring them up with creamer and sugar.
“Did you have a good weekend?” I asked, while wondering if adding more caffeine to my anxious jitters was wise.
Before he even answered, a broad, dreamy smile spread across Kaylan’s lips. Obviously, Kaylan had spent the weekend with his new boyfriend, Arden. “Yeah, Arden and I drove down to Red River Gorge and rented one of those cabins near the Daniel Boone National Forest. We spent our time hiking and checking out the different arches.”
“I’m surprised. From your expression, I thought maybe you spent the weekend in bed.”
“Well…” Kaylan cleared his throat, his smirk returning. “There was plenty of that, too.”
Kaylan had met Arden through a dating app that Sebastian had signed him up for without his knowledge. It was lucky that Kaylan had matched with Arden for Valentine’s Day. The two had been together for just over three months and were still in the hearts-and-rainbows phase of their relationship.
Was I jealous? Maybe a little. I’d gotten to meet Arden once when he’d popped by one afternoon to take Kaylan out to lunch. He was a sweet man who obviously thought Kaylan hung the moon, and I was happy for them both.
But did I have a shot at some of that same happiness with Sebastian?
The idea of dating someone as rich, handsome, and dynamic as Sebastian was mind-boggling. I’d always thought that rich people dated other rich people. They didn’t notice people like me who were scraping by, one bad day away from complete ruin.
“What about you?” Kaylan inquired, breaking into my wandering thoughts. “Do anything exciting this past weekend?”
I’d lifted my coffee to my lips to take a sip as he asked and I was grateful I’d stopped, because I would have choked on the hot beverage.
Oh, nothing too exciting. Just got ripped in the boss’s office, kissed him, puked on him, and then went on a pseudo-date before he proposed this insane bargain that could both fix and destroy my life. You know, nothing too out of the ordinary.
“Umm…no, not really. Slept a lot. Read some.”
“Sounds like a nice, quiet weekend.” Kaylan’s smile was tight and polite. I could almost feel his pity. Yeah, that was a pathetic weekend—not because it was a total lie, but because it was an answer I’d given more than once. I rarely did anything on the weekends besides sleep, read, and prepare for the coming workweek.
What he didn’t know was that my weekends were usually spent checking on my mother, cleaning her house, getting her groceries, and running to Louisville to see my brother. When it was all over, I was glad to be at work because it was less stressful than my weekends.
“We should get to our desks. I’m sure Sebastian will be walking in soon.”
“Yep,” Kaylan said with a nod. He strolled out of our break room ahead of me. “He’s got a long list of meetings today. It’s going to be a busy one. I’ll be ready if you need me to jump on something.”
“Thank you.”
After my chat with Kaylan and a few sips of coffee, my brain was ready to attack the day. I breezed through a stack of emails and sorted through the reports and contracts that were ready to hit Sebastian’s desk. Despite nearly everything going digital, he preferred to read all major reports and contracts on paper. He said it was easier to write on the paper when a thought or concern hit him. It was my responsibility to decipher his handwriting and add the notes to the digital copies for the various departments.
Sebastian breezed through the office as I was getting the last of my notes together. There was no need for Kaylan’s warning text that Sebastian had arrived, because I could hear my boss’s cheery voice echoing across the entire floor.
“Happy Monday, Kaylan! You look like you had a great weekend,” Sebastian called out.
“So do you, sir,” Kaylan replied.
“It was fantastic. Best weekend I’ve had in a long time.”
I steeled myself, fighting the urge to bury my face in my hands even as heat crept into my cheeks. There was no way he was talking about me and our time together. He was insane.
As the clack of his hard-soled shoes grew louder across the black marble floor, I gathered up the papers and my tablet, which had a list of all the things he needed to review. Just like every day, I rose from my desk and moved to meet him at the door to his office.
“There’s my Byron. The man I would be utterly lost without,” Sebastian greeted with more exuberance than usual. He was a chipper person, but this was taking it to the extreme, even for him. Carl walked two steps behind him and gave a wordless shrug, as if to say he had no idea what had put him in such a good mood.
“Good morning, sir,” I greeted and pushed both of the doors open for him.
The first thing I’d done upon returning to Courtland Enterprises this morning was to clean up my paper mess, scrub away all signs that I’d ever had a drop of alcohol in that room, and freshen the air with his favorite scents. While I knew he’d seen the disaster I’d made, I’d wanted to make sure there was not even a shadow of it for his arrival on Monday. We needed to forget about that embarrassing incident.
Carl followed Sebastian in and made a quick check of the office to make sure everything was secure, then retreated to his own space. We wouldn’t see him until Sebastian stepped out for lunch.
As Sebastian dropped into his high-back leather swivel chair, I took up my usual position on his right. My too-handsome boss was dressed in my favorite suit—a dark-navy plaid material with a lighter-blue collared shirt and tie. There was something about the way the jacket hugged his shoulders that made it so hard to look away from him.
Did he know that was my favorite? I wouldn’t put it past him to wear it in hopes of swaying my final decision on the bargain he proposed, but how did he know it was my favorite?
It was only when I noticed Sebastian had his left elbow resting on the top of his desk and his cheek leaning against his fist as he gazed up at me with a grin that I realized I had been staring instead of talking.
“Sir, you have a long list of meetings today. The first is at nine—a briefing about the numbers Mr. Foster provided from the finance department on Friday. At nine thirty, the head of marketing for Courtland Comfort will be stopping by to discuss the last changes to the summer campaigns. Ten thirty?—”
“Did you do anything fun yesterday?” Sebastian interrupted.
“Sir,” I gritted out, trying to get him on task. I would not talk about how I’d alternated between anger and masturbating after he’d left my place.
“Would you like to hear what I did with my Sunday?” Sebastian waggled his eyebrows at me, and I got the impression that there were some distinct similarities between our Sundays.
“I think it would be best if we focused on work. We have a very busy day ahead of us if we hope to protect the jobs of everyone who works at Courtland Enterprises.”
Sebastian flopped back into his seat, his right hand rested on his heart. “ Ugh . That was cold. How could you be so mean to me first thing in the morning?”
Sadly, this was not the first time he’d ever said that to me. It was a refrain I’d heard frequently when I scheduled meetings for him prior to nine a.m. My boss always came in at eight, so he could have a minimum of a full hour to go through messages and notes before his first meeting. I was usually in between six and seven to prepare for my day, but he didn’t need to know that.
“You promised me an answer today,” he pressed, dropping his voice to a whisper.
“We’re at work. We need to focus on work,” I gritted out between clenched teeth.
Sebastian’s grin turned wicked as he reached into his pocket and pulled something out. My gaze followed his hand to the center of his desk, where he set the marble egg. The Friend Egg.
“ That is not going to work.” I didn’t think anyone could overhear us, but there was no way I was taking any chances. “If I were to agree to your bargain, we would need to set up some ground rules about what’s not allowed in the office. The first thing would be that egg .”
Sebastian flashed me a wounded expression, complete with his bottom lip jutting out. “You can’t ban the Friend Egg. You have personal conversations with Kaylan.”
“But they still fall within the bounds of good taste for work. I doubt that would happen with you.”
Wisely, Sebastian didn’t debate that.
“You take private phone calls.”
“Only in an emergency.”
Sebastian pressed his index finger to the narrow top of the egg and slightly rolled it on its wider base. His thumb stroked up the flawless side, making my horrible brain wander to places it shouldn’t. Like, what would it be like to feel his massive hands running up and down my bare skin? On Sunday, the heat of those hands had burned through my clothes, and still I ached to strip so I could feel him skin to skin.
No! Work thoughts!
“This needs to be negotiable. Emergency and lunch.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to think of any loopholes that he might try to create. “Lunch included, but just if it’s the two of us.”
Sebastian’s grin returned in a flash. “Does this mean you’re saying yes?”
Did it?
When I’d fallen asleep last night, I’d been leaning that way but wobbled over to saying no while in my morning shower.
It all returned to what he’d asked me in my apartment—what if he wasn’t my boss and he’d hit on me in that bookstore? I knew my answer would be yes. Even without knowing he was stupidly rich. The man was handsome, fun, and too sweet. Dating someone like him was a dream for anyone. Was I really too scared to take a chance?
I dragged in a deep breath, all the muscles in my body tensing. “Yes. Yes, I agree to the bargain that you laid out.” Sebastian made a fist and appeared as though he were going to punch the air, but I stopped it with a word. “However!”
“Crap,” he muttered and dropped his hand to his lap.
“We need to set up some ground rules.”
“Have dinner with me tonight. We can discuss them over dinner. I know the perfect restaurant.”
My lips twisted to stop my smile. “Would you like me to book it for you, sir?”
Sebastian snorted and reached out, hooking his index finger through my left pinky as my hand hung limp at my side. “Enough of your sass. You’ve never booked dates for me in the past, and you’re not about to start now.”
I knew I should pull my hand free, but his warm touch was sending tingles up my arm. It was so tempting to just open my hand and thread the rest of our fingers together.
A knock on Sebastian’s door had me jerking my hand free of his. I stiffened and jumped a step away from him before I even looked up to find the CFO standing in the doorway.
“Sorry. I know I’m early, but it’s going to take longer than the thirty minutes we’ve allotted for this meeting,” Declan said as he walked in.
“Yeah, yeah. Come on in.” Sebastian waved him in as he sat up in his chair properly.
“Good morning, Mr. Foster. Can I get you some coffee or hot tea?” I inquired, slipping easily into my role as Sebastian’s assistant.
“No, thank you. Are you feeling better today?” Declan asked.
I stared at him for a moment, confused as to why he would ask that. Had Sebastian told him I’d left early on Friday because of illness? I was about to assume it was that, but I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Sebastian was making faces at him and motioning for him to be quiet.
It hit me like a truck.
Sebastian had said he’d returned to the office for some paperwork and had found me on Friday. But that wasn’t the case. Declan had found me when he’d dropped those financial numbers off on his desk. The CFO had found me passed out drunk in the CEO’s office.
Holy. Fuck.
“Mr. Foster,” I choked, my voice trembling as the horror of my reality sank in. “I am so sorry that you found me like that. It was completely inexcusable. I-I-I?—”
Sebastian grabbed my ice-cold fingers and squeezed them tight enough to hurt, trying to capture my attention, but I couldn’t look away from Declan. “Byron, don’t. You don’t owe him an apology.”
“He’s correct. You don’t need to apologize. Sebastian explained you were dealing with a family issue and that you had his permission to work in his office after hours. Like Sebastian, I just want to be sure that you don’t hurt yourself. You’re very valuable to Courtland Enterprises.”
“Thank you, Mr. Foster. I don’t feel worthy of your kind words, but they are appreciated. I promise it will never happen again.”
Sebastian squeezed my hand, and I finally glanced at him. He was smiling, but there was worry still filling his honey-brown eyes. “After my meeting with Declan, I’ll come find you so we can finish the rundown of the day.”
“Yes, sir.” Sebastian’s calm words about work put me on even footing and allowed me to escape with no further embarrassment.
But I still didn’t know if Friday’s debacle was going to prove to be a disaster for my career or a stepping-stone to the best decision of my life. Thankfully, I had a very busy day of work ahead of me.