Billionaire's Assistant Page 2

  She shivered in the night air.

  “Cold?”

  “A little.”

  “Come here.” I was dumb, but I pulled her close. I could smell whatever she used in her hair, which smelled like coconuts.

  “What are you doing?”

  “You’re cold. You need warmth.”

  God, she felt so good pressed against me. So soft. She smelled so good. Was it the drink talking or was there something actually there? My erection certainly thought that there was something there.

  The walk back to their apartment was too short, even trying to walk with a hard-on. When we got to the door, I watched her unlock it. I heard the thunk of the lock unlatching. She spun around, which made her skirt fly up a little bit. I saw a hint of lace-edged panties that made me lick my lips. How in God’s name had I never noticed her? It was probably because of Paul. I remembered the little kid that she’d been, back when their parents had been alive and I went back to their place after football practice. Damn, that had been so long ago. I remember her mother putting clips into her daughter’s hair before they went out. I remembered her fifth birthday party, when Mrs. Jenkins had me over to hang out with Paul while little kids took over the rest of the house.

  I was a dirty pervert. I shouldn’t be thinking about Paul’s little sister’s underwear. I shouldn’t be sweating thinking about peeling it off of her.

  “Thanks for walking me home. You didn’t have to, but thanks anyway.”

  “Anytime. Show up at my office at nine tomorrow morning, okay?”

  She nodded. “Our secret.” She smiled at me, a smile that showed off her secret dimples. Her smile was even more arousing because she didn’t know what she was doing.

  I had to get out of here before I kissed her goodnight and tasted that pure innocence. “See ya.”

  I practically ran to my car to get out of there. I was so fucked.

  First Day

  Riley

  NEXT DAY

  My heart was pounding hard when I opened the door to Desmond’s office. This was it. My first day of work.

  As soon as I opened the door, a wave of sound washed over me. I could see a sea of cubicles, the sound of printers spitting out paper, people on the phone, and tons of clacking on keyboards and clicks of mouses.

  “You’re late.” Dez was leaning against the doorframe, looming over me. His face was a little too close to mine. He tapped his watch, which said that it was 9:01.

  “My phone says that it’s still 9.” I showed him my phone.

  He made a sound like, “Hm.” He straightened his tie. “Follow me.”

  He began walking swiftly towards his office. I tried to keep up but his legs were a lot longer than mine. I was forced to break into a medium-pace jog just to keep up. My pencil skirt didn’t have a lot of wiggle room to jog, either. I was already miserable, and I’d just gotten here.

  “Slow…down,” I puffed. I hadn’t run since gym class freshman year, and that hadn’t been a picnic.

  “Miss Jenkins, if you can’t keep up, you can go home right now.”

  There was something in his voice that I couldn’t understand. It was as if he wanted me to go home, but he’d hired me just last night.

  “If you want me to go home, you can get a temp from an agency while you look for someone else. You’re not the only employer in town.” I wasn’t going to let him stomp all over me. “You’re the one who hired me last night. Change your mind?”

  He hesitated for a few seconds, which made me narrow my eyes at him. “Did you talk to Paul about this?”

  The guilty look on his face said it all. “You told my brother!”

  “He has a right to know. He’s the head of your household.”

  I shook my head. “I am an adult.”

  “You keep saying that,” he snapped, “but your brother would kick my ass if we did this behind his back. Didn’t you think that he’d notice that you came to work every day?”

  I crossed my arms. “There’s no reason to involve Paul in this. It’s about earning enough money to live on while I’m in college.”

  “You need money to live on? Aren’t you going to ElCo?” There was a community college near my house.

  “What if I didn’t go to ElCo?” I raised my eyebrows at him.

  “Where do you want to go?”

  “Can you keep a secret?” I snorted. “No, you obviously can’t. I’m going to get a marketing degree.”

  “That sounds fine. Why wouldn’t Paul let you do that?”

  “He thinks I’m a little kid, that’s why. He thinks that I should just stay home forever.”

  Dez rubbed his chin. “Let’s say that you’ll work here for the summer for now…and if you want to stay longer, you can.”

  “Sounds fine to me.” I beamed at him.

  By the end of the day, I wasn’t so cheerful. My feet hurt, a slowly throbbing ache that made me wish I’d packed emergency Tylenol in my purse. I wasn’t used to wobbling around. And Dez was obviously short for “despot.” He was a micro-manager who’d looked over my shoulder and messaged me all day on the internal chat system. I was beginning to wonder if his former assistants weren’t devious geniuses who had maneuvered him into firing them so that they could collect unemployment insurance and get away from his tyrannical behavior. Getting fired was beginning to look more and more attractive.

  Eric’s Contract

  Desmond

  I jumped in my chair when my office phone rang. I grabbed it to make it stop.

  “Hello?”

  “Where the fuck is my contract?” Eric’s voice was distinctively growly, but he sounded pissed off.

  What contract? I’d been so preoccupied by trying to secretly watch Riley that I didn’t have any idea what he was talking about. My day had been eaten up with imagining what she’d taste like and what her curves would feel like when I got my hands on them. I felt like a dirty old man, which was ridiculous. I was only 31, old enough to afford Viagra and young enough not to need it. Clearing my throat, I looked at my inbox and saw a large number of irate emails marked urgent with a red exclamation mark.

  “You were supposed to have it on my desk by the end of business, but that was an hour ago. I still don’t have it.”

  I checked my sent messages. I’d sent it to Riley to type up at the beginning of the day.

  “Listen, my assistant has it. I’ll get it to you within an hour.”

  “You better or I’ll take Zymax’s offer tomorrow morning.”

  “Don’t fucking threaten me, Eric.” My voice was cold. Nobody threatened me. “It’s a fair offer. You’ll get the contract.”

  He hung up on me. Fucker. I slammed the phone down. The whole thing fell off of my desk, making a loud sound.

  Riley knocked on my door and poked her head in. “Is everything okay?”

  “Come in and close the door,” I grunted. She came in. The door closed.

  “Where’s Eric’s fucking contract?” I got up from my desk and made her back up a step, putting her back against the wall next to the door.

  “Who?”

  “Eric!”

  “I don’t know what you’re…”

  “The one with the partnership with Martheed Lockin?”

  “Oh, yeah. I’m still typing that up. I just need five minutes.”

  “You were supposed to have that ready an hour ago.”

  “Well, excuse me, sir.” She rolled her eyes at me. “You’ve been messaging me and making me come into your damn office all day. I’ll get it done, okay?” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Is that all?”

  I put my hand on the wall next to her. Riley’s eyes got big as I lowered my face close to hers.

  “You better keep up if you want to work here,” I growled. “I can fire you just like all the other assistants.”

  “You wouldn’t dare. My brother is going to kick your ass for threatening me.” She stuck out her chin, lifting her face just a half centimeter closer to mine.

  Wh
at the hell. Paul was going to skin me anyway. I probably deserved it for thinking dirty thoughts about his little sister.

  I lowered my mouth onto Riley’s. Her lips were soft and pillowy. She tasted like cotton candy. I put my hand under her chin to tilt it just a little to the side as I shot my tongue into her mouth.

  I pinned her body to the wall with my much larger one, grinding my erection against her soft stomach. I put my mouth next to her ear.

  “It’s not my fault that your ass looks luscious in that pencil skirt. It’s been driving me crazy all day. I need to bite you.” I turned my head and bit her neck. She smelled like apples, not coconuts like yesterday. Her knees must have buckled or something, because she fell down a millimeter before I pushed against her body a little harder. I started kissing my way down her neck to her cleavage, which was annoyingly covered by her button-up shirt. One button down. Two.

  Then the door swung open.

  Interruption

  Riley

  “What do we have here?” I could hear a woman’s very amused voice next to us. I tore my mouth away from Desmond’s and looked at the doorway.

  A woman who looked like she was a foot taller than me was standing in the doorway. I had on heels that were four inches tall. Hers were as high as stripper heels, and she wasn’t a short woman to begin with. Her skirt was scandalously short, barely covering the essentials.

  I blushed hard when I saw how funny I looked to her. I wasn’t in the same league as whoever this was. I was barely in the same universe. I crossed my arms, hugging myself. I didn’t know why, but it seemed really cold right now.

  “Zara,” Desmond said, his voice carefully neutral. He had been burning up in front of me. Now he was icily cold to this stranger.

  “Having a little afternoon delight, darling?” She looked me up and down and smiled even more. “I don’t mind what you do during business hours, as long as you come home.”

  Shame washed over me, hot and fast. “Who are you?” I didn’t know that Desmond was involved with anyone else. I’d never have accepted this job if I’d thought he would make a move on me while he was with someone else.

  “Don’t you know? I’m sure we’ll be very well acquainted very soon. I’m Zara Rodriguez, his fiancée.” She extended her hand towards me. I saw the glint off of the enormous diamond on her engagement ring.

  I swallowed down the bile that rose in my throat. “Fiancée?”

  “That’s right. Just ask Desmond. He’s the one who bought me this charmingly tiny bauble.” She stroked her ring, looking like a cat who got the cream.

  I’d heard enough. I wiggled away from Desmond and sprinted out the door, heels be damned. As long as I stayed on the balls of my feet, I’d be okay.

  “Riley!” I could hear Desmond coming after me, but I hit the bank of elevators and miraculously one of them opened as soon as I hit the button. I guessed that it was still on the floor after Zara came up. Nobody was there to see me and my utter humiliation. I got into the elevator and jammed the “Close Door” button as I watched Zara wrap herself around Desmond like a jungle vine and stop him from running after me.

  In the privacy of the elevator, I could feel tears start to fall. I turned my back to the elevator camera and cried quietly. I was dumb to think that Desmond would have actual feelings for me. I knew exactly the kind of man he was. I’d watched him use and discard so many girls. I’d let him kiss me anyway.

  He knew what he was doing. When he’d kissed me, tenderly and then ardently, I felt my whole body melting. Pinning me against the wall had gotten me so hot, but it was just a game for him. He had someone waiting for him at home.

  Sort of weird that Paul had never mentioned that Desmond had a fiancée, especially since the three of us had been out at the bar just last night. Paul might be ready to chase tail, but he drew the line at cheating, like I did. If he knew that his best friend was going to get married, I felt like he would have said something about it while they were sucking face with those two girls last night.

  I stopped crying as the elevator doors opened. At least I could talk to Paul when I got home and get some answers.

  Busted

  Riley

  When I got off the bus and unlocked our door, Paul was sitting in a chair next to our foyer.

  “Hey, Paul.” I put a smile on, even though my eyes were probably still red. “How was your day?”

  Without a sound, he lifted a yellow envelope. My acceptance letter.

  “How could you?” he asked me. I couldn’t read his face. Was he angry? Sad? Upset?

  “I want to go to college. You know that.”

  “We already agreed that you’d go to ElCo.”

  “You decided that I was going to ElCo. I didn’t. I know that I’m already admitted, but I really wanted to focus on a marketing degree in a burgeoning industry. Why can’t you be happy for me?”

  “We’ll never be able to afford this.” He threw the envelope down. “Damn it, Riley. I’m trying to keep food on the table and pay our rent, and meanwhile you want to go to one of the most expensive universities in California? How does that make sense? You can transfer there after two years.”

  “You just want to keep me at home,” I accused him, bending down to pick up my envelope. “You can’t stand the thought of your baby sister going off to college. Well, I’m going to earn enough money to live off of. I’ve already designated University of SoCal as my first choice, so they’re giving me full tuition. I have to pay a little bit for fees and a whole bunch for housing and food. I’ll figure out my student loans, even if I have to spend the next forty years of my life paying them off. You can’t make my decisions for me, Paul!”

  I swept past him and went to my own room, slamming the door behind me. A few seconds later, I heard the front door slam and the thunk of the lock sliding into place. Paul had left our apartment.

  What a total mess. My first day at work had ended with my boss yelling at me for not finishing something that he’d constantly interrupted. Then he’d cornered me in his office so that we could make out before his fiancée had interrupted us. I put a pillow over my face and screamed into it. I hadn’t even gotten the chance to ask Paul about Zara.

  I pulled the pillow off of my face and thought about how I’d fix things. Obviously, Desmond was a cheating asshole who didn’t deserve another second of my time. I’d go into work and earn the money I needed for college, but I’d never go into his office with the door closed again. Making out with my boss on the first day wasn’t even remotely professional. My cheeks got hot again when I thought about Zara’s eyes when she looked at me while I was pinned against the wall. The experience was so humiliating that I was sure it’d go down as the top ten most embarrassing moments in my life.

  Tomorrow, I’d go into work. I’d be professional. I’d do what I needed to do. And I sure as hell wouldn’t let Desmond ever corner me like that again.

  Octopus

  Desmond

  “Get off of me.” I pulled Zara’s arms off of my body. “I need to get Riley.” I lunged towards the elevators. If I hurried, I could catch her.

  Like an octopus, Zara latched onto my wrist. “No, stay and talk to me.” She pouted, something that I used to tolerate and now despised.

  “I need…”

  “I know what you need.” She tugged at the bottom of her dress so that a little more of her cleavage showed. “I don’t mind you playing around with little girls as long as you know it takes a real woman to satisfy you.”

  I looked at Zara. The smile on her lips and the hand on her dress’s hem were so unlike Riley that I had a hard time believing I’d ever fallen for Zara’s dubious charms.

  “When I caught you in bed with one of my business partners, we were done.”

  She pouted even more. “But it was just a momentary distraction. You know I love you.” She advanced again, but I didn’t move an inch.

  “Zara, you ended our engagement when I saw you cheating. And you were the one who chose the ring an
d dragged me into the jewelry store on a daily basis, anyway. I gave you that ring to shut you up, not because I loved you.”

  She gasped, her huge dark eyes growing hard. Instead of the soft sweetness that she’d projected before, she showed her teeth.

  “If you don’t get back together with me, I’ll tell everyone that you like little girls, like that one that ran out of here crying. Sweet little thing, isn’t she? The media would have a field day about notorious womanizer Desmond Barton, CEO of a company so large that he can’t count the subsidiaries, getting involved with someone who looks underage.”

  “She’s nineteen, not that it’s any of your business.”

  She absorbed the blow for a second, then she rallied. “A teenager? Good God, if she’s a teenager, there’s no way that someone that young can satisfy your appetite.” Her gaze sharpened. “Or is she a virgin? Is that what you’re after? A sweet, virginal little girl to whom you can teach everything? Attractive, right? I can pretend that I’m a virgin, if you like, honey.”

  “Get the hell out of my office before I call security.”

  Zara smiled at me. Her eyes were still cold and dark. “Oh, I’ll leave your office. But this won’t be the last that you and that little intern or whatever she is will hear from me.”

  She sauntered away with confidence that I used to find alluring. But now I found that my tastes had changed. Riley was a lot less sure of herself than Zara Rodriguez, but if I’d put a ring on Riley’s finger, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t find her riding my business partner naked in my bed, screaming his name.

  I shook my head, ignoring that bad memory. I should have considered it a good day. Zara had shown me her true colors before we got married. She couldn’t take half of my assets. She’d talked me out of a prenup, and I’d been lucky there.