Chapter 2
EPITOME OF CONTROL
“Ethan, you need to find my replacement.”
Ethan Bond looked at Blair Cummings and bit back a wince. “I’m trying. Do you know how hard it is to find someone I can trust? Someone who will work over forty hours a week and be even halfway professional?”
It shouldn’t have taken this long.
Blair told him over a month ago she was moving.
He offered her the moon, the sky, then the sun. Everything he could possibly do, he was tossing at her as if they were hot potatoes in his hands and he knew she’d catch them no problem and serve them the way he always wanted.
For ten years she’d been his executive assistant. The minute he moved into the big wing and took on more, he’d taken a gamble by stealing her from someone else and it paid off.
“I can’t help it I’ve got some big shoes to fill,” Blair said, holding up her tiny foot.
Everything on her was tiny. Small but mighty was how he described her.
Whatever he needed, she knew before him, had it taken care of and on his desk, sometimes with a little piece of chocolate next to it.
For those grouchy days, she’d say.
It felt like he was going through a bag of Godiva a day.
“You do. Move your mother here,” he said. “I’ll get it taken care of for you. We’ve got some of the best doctors in the US right here in Boston.”
“We do, but my mother will never move to what she calls the big city.”
Blair’s mother was seventy with a lot of medical issues. As the only daughter, she felt it was on her shoulders to move in and help with care.
“But if she’s not outside doing much anyway, what’s the big deal?”
“You know begging doesn’t become you,” Blair said.
He blew a breath out and then tried to put his best adorable grin on his face.
“He’s never been afraid to do it. If he gets on his knees then you’re in trouble.”
Ethan turned his head, embarrassed at having been caught. “Thanks, Dad,” he said. Though his father wasn’t wrong.
Not that anyone ever saw that side of him other than family. Not even Blair.
In the office, anywhere near staff, he was the epitome of control.
As an heir to a billion-dollar empire, he had to be that way.
His oldest brother, Eli, had the casino as his baby, but still sat in on meetings with businesses and ventures that at some point would go to all three boys.
Egan, the middle son, all he wanted to do was play with his helicopters and lived on Amore Island just like Eli. Did Egan put some of his goofball ways aside and sit at the board table when needed? Yep, he did.
But it was Ethan, the youngest, who was going to be tasked with running it all.
He was being primed for it and his siblings were more than willing to let him take the lead.
Not bad for the baby of the family who always got his ass busted on.
It wasn’t just Bond Enterprises though. He also had his own ‘babies’. His own investments and ventures. Things he could call his like his siblings did, but nothing was solely his, just minority silent ownership.
He wanted more. Needed more.
But all those things were stretching him thin, and with the one person he relied on to make sure he didn’t snap leaving, he was slowly losing his mind.
Add to that the fact that the woman he’d hooked up with three weeks ago had vanished before he even opened his eyes, and it had him reaching for one of the sweet truffles Blair had dropped on his desk yesterday.
He’d felt something with Nora he hadn’t in years. A spark that drilled deep and clean. She hadn’t played coy or hard to get.
She’d been open.
Real.
Fun in a way that made him forget how heavy everything else in his life had gotten.
His joking suggestion to take it upstairs wasn’t meant to be serious. But when she looked him straight in the eye and said, “Why not?” like she’d be fine either way… he’d lost the ability to be casual about it.
Maybe that was what drove him to prove something that night. To prove that he could make it worth her time.
What they shared was fast, hot, and intoxicating.
But underneath the rush, there’d been this quiet connection that hit harder than he wanted to admit. For those brief hours it filled a hole in his life he hadn’t been willing to admit existed.
The last remaining boy of his family. The single one out having fun while his brothers were married with two kids each.
He wanted what they had but couldn’t seem to get a whiff of something close.
He’d planned to tell Nora in the morning that he wanted to see her again. That he’d like to discover what they’d had and it was more than a night of pleasure to him.
Instead, she was gone.
Sure, he could have asked his brother Eli or Griffin, the head of security, to pull the camera footage and track her down. But that would mean confessing he’d been ghosted, and he’d never live it down.
So, he let it go. Or tried to.
“If you eat all those at once, you’re going to get fat,” Blair teased.
He didn’t answer.
Because the truth was, every time he bit into one of those damn truffles, all he could think about was that Nora didn’t think that.
Not with the way her fingers had traced his chest, her lips tasting his skin, the soft, breathless sounds that still haunted him when the lights were out.
The first time had been all fire and urgency.
The second was slow, steady, and deep enough to follow him into his dreams.
He finished chewing and pushed it out of his mind. She was gone; he had to move on too.
“Hard to do that when I miss lunch half the time. Who’s going to make sure I eat if you’re not here?”
“Wow, Ethan,” his father said. “You might not get on your knees, but that’s begging if I ever saw it.”
His nose twitched a few times, then he tossed the box on his desk. “Help me eat these then. It will keep your lips from busting my ass.”
His father walked in laughing and helped himself to one. He nudged it closer to Blair who came in and grabbed one too.
“I am going to miss stealing the chocolate I buy for you. But you really need to find someone. I know it’s hard. I’m sorting through resumes as they come.”
“And? It’s not my imagination. No one is qualified. You’ve sent me two to look at and they were thin. Reaching. I was disappointed you gave them to me.”
She laughed at the last of his words knowing he was just laying it on thick. “Sadly, no one that I’d waste my time with, not even a couple in the building who inquired. There are a few in the organization that you could approach. You poached me from Norris.”
He laughed. “And he’s never forgiven me for it. I wouldn’t even think of doing it again.”
“I don’t know how you got away with it,” his father said.
Blair moved to the door and shut it. “Because Norris isn’t an easy person to work for and if you hadn’t asked me to come on with you, I would have left.”
His shoulders dropped. It wasn’t a secret that Norris Jones was harsh with his staff, but he wasn’t abusive. He wasn’t a dick. He always kept it professional, but the line sometimes grew thin.
Norris just wasn’t warm, friendly, caring, or even flexible.
Times change and staff had to feel as if they didn’t live just to work for you, even if he wished it was so.
The last thing Ethan wanted was a reputation like that.
“Well, I want someone like you. What do you think the chances of that are going to be?”
“Slim to none,” Blair said, her smile filling her face. His assistant looked at her watch. “And we’ve got a meeting. Did you look over what I sent you?”
“I did, it’s great. Thanks. If we can’t find someone soon, you’re going to have to show me all the tricks to these presentations.”
He always thought he was a smart dude, but damned if he could get a presentation looking half as decent as she could and in a fraction of the time.
“Mitchell, if it comes to that, you’ll have to put a candy shop into the building along with a personal trainer so Ethan doesn’t get soft.”
“Not happening,” he said.
Ever since he moved to his new condo two years ago, he was able to walk to work and back. Sometimes he went for his morning run, then swung back to the office, showered here and changed, then walked home after.
The half a mile to his condo from the Seaport District to the edge of the Financial District was the convenience he needed in his life.
Not that parking was an issue with it in his building and office complex for senior management, but he got a more relaxing home life to go to now with a much better view.
“I’m going to miss picking on you,” Blair said.
“Remote work,” he said. “You know we’ll make it work.”
She smiled. “And I told you I would until you found someone, but you can’t rely on it or me nonstop. I’m there to help my mother.”
“You said you needed to work part time,” he argued. “Do it with me.”
Blair turned to look at Mitchell. “I told you,” his father said.
“Ethan, if that is what you want and works for you, I’ll consider it, but I need to get situated there and figure out my mother’s needs.”
“I’ll make it work,” he said firmly. He didn’t care the cost. Blair part time was still going to be better than someone new full time.
“You need someone here and we’ll get it sorted. Now let’s go. You don’t want to be late.”
“We’re on our way,” his father said.
“Is there something you needed to talk to me about?” Ethan asked.
“I hope you aren’t putting off hiring someone thinking you can convince Blair to stay. That’s selfish of you when she’s got to be there for her mother.”
“I’m not,” he argued. “It’s all in good fun even though I would love for her to stay on in some capacity. You know how hard it is to find good help and in our positions even harder.”
“All valid points. I’m sure you’ll find someone. Just don’t have too high expectations either. You’ve only had Blair and got spoiled. It took me years to find someone like that.”
He sighed. “I know. About the meeting. You’re good with me taking the lead?”
“Always,” his father said. “Ethan, you’ve got the respect you need from those that are important. Me, Mason, Darin, Norris, we are all in the retirement talks stage.”
He laughed. “No way you’re all going out at once. You never will.”
“No,” his father said. “I’ll never step down completely. I can’t. I’ll be on the board, the same with Mason and Darin when the time comes.”
Mason Rauch was married to Sophia Nadar, who was from Patricia’s side of the family.
One of the original five Bonds in the family tree.
Twin to Catherine. Sophia and his mother were best of friends on top of it.
Mason was family, blood and otherwise, so he’d always have a place with Bond Enterprises.
His experience in operations moved him up to the CIO slot many moons ago.
Darin Nadar was CFO and Sophia’s brother and Mason’s brother-in-law; the Bonds liking to keep those roles within family.
Norris Jones, he’d been around for years, came on board with Mason and stayed under him while growing. The guy would love Mason’s position, but Ethan didn’t see it ever happening with Norris being older than Mason.
Family would never be pushed out either.
Those three men, along with the Vice President of Finance under Darin, were present, along with an in-house attorney and some other key personnel.
“I know. There is comfort in that, even when you think the next generation might not respect you.”
His father clapped a heavy hand on his back. “You always have, and you always will. We don’t operate the same way, and I never expected you to, but you get it done just the same.”
“Thanks.”
Ethan wasn’t sure he needed to hear it, but it hit something inside him all the same.
That quiet, unspoken pressure, the one that lived just beneath his ribs never really went away. The need to prove he could run things as hard, as smart, and as strong as his father had.
It wasn’t just the family name or the competition with his brothers. It was the weight of every paycheck and every person whose life depended on Bond money.
One day, it would all be his to oversee.
Every success. Every headache.
Every ounce of pride and burden that came with it.
“Blair was just telling us you’re having no luck replacing her,” Mason said when Ethan walked in with his father.
“It’s not easy,” he said. “A little bit of my soul is being chipped away daily as we loom in to Blair’s departure. Anyone want to give me their assistant?”
“No,” everyone at the table said at once.
“I didn’t think so. It all works out the way it should. Now, we need to get down to business, then we’ll open the floor.”
“You did great,” his father said two hours later. “Not that I expected otherwise.”
“It’s becoming second nature to present projects. Mason and Norris have their work cut out for them right now, but it has to be done.”
Operations had the biggest daily headache, overseeing more staff and businesses. They might be broken up into divisions and Norris overseeing those divisions with many under him, but the guy was tough to deal with like Blair said.
Damn if he didn’t get the job done though, and when Norris’s time came to leave, it was going to be another enormous set of shoes to fill.