by L. D. Davis
Focus on the milkshake, and everything will be okay. You can do this!
I found Mayson waiting with a dozen other people at the three elevators in the lobby. She smiled and waved me over.
“Good morning,” she said too brightly.
“Hi,” I said, making myself smile.
“I heard you had a run in with Kyle yesterday,” she said in an apologetic tone. “I’m sorry.”
I shrugged. “No big deal. I can handle him.”
“Are you sure? Because I can put you in another department.”
“No way,” I said as we slowly moved forward towards an open cab. “That will only reinforce his pretentious idea that I’m incapable of doing this job.”
She nodded but looked doubtful.
“You don’t think I can do it either,” I said in a matter of fact tone.
“I think you can do it, but I also think you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into. Kyle is—” She didn’t finish her sentence, because the man in question stepped onto the crowded elevator.
He glanced at me when he got on next to me, scowled at Mayson, and then turned his attention to his phone. On the way to the tenth floor, the elevator stopped at every floor, mostly to let people off, but sometimes someone would get on to head upstairs. When it stopped on our floor, I started to follow Mayson out of the cab when a strong hand wrapped around my forearm. I stood on the threshold, staring back at Kyle in shock. I had almost decked him (again), my natural defense after being around sleazy men in bars for my entire adult life.
He blocked the elevator doors from closing with his foot as he glared at me.
“Where are you going?” he demanded.
Mayson grabbed a hold of my other arm, forcing my briefcase to slide down my shoulder and hang at my elbow.
“What are you doing, Sterling?” Mayson demanded. “She has to go to orientation and training this week. You know the routine.”
“No, that will not work,” he said, tugging me towards him. “I need her to start now. We’re already far behind.”
Mayson tugged me towards her. “If you’re already so far behind, then what’s another week or so?”
Kyle pulled. “You’ve already taken too long to fill the position. A week or ‘so’ is detrimental.”
In the elevator, the other employees and one FedEx guy watched Kyle and Mayson as if they were watching a tennis match and I was the ball. Only one person seemed irritated by the hold up, but she remained silent.
“Dude, are you crazy?” Mayson snorted, pulling harder on me. “Just yesterday you were crying about her lack of experience, but you won’t let her go to training? It’s as if you’re setting her up to fail.” She said the last part scathingly.
His eyes narrowed as he pulled much harder than Mayson. I was sure that my arms were stretching and by the end of this, my knuckles would be dragging on the ground when I walked.
“You were so confident about her abilities,” Kyle snarled. “You assured me that she knew what she was doing. If she is so capable of doing this position, then why does she need to spend a week and a half training?”
Mayson’s mouth popped open and her eyes widened. She yanked me, hard, and started to speak in a high-pitched tone, but I interrupted.
“I am going to ask you both nicely to release me or this is going to get very ugly,” I said in a calm and steady voice.
Mayson looked guilty and immediately released my arm with a quick apology. Kyle, however, continued to hold on to me and glare. I looked down at his hand on my arm and back to his face.
“Let’s not repeat history,” I said in a low voice. “Don’t make me embarrass you in your own building.”
Any other guy would have released me, but Kyle was too proud to back down from a woman more than a foot smaller than him in front of eight other people. Ignoring the need to bring him down a peg, I spoke in a firm, but polite tone.
“I am going to spend the morning getting oriented with a few things,” I said to him. “I still need an ID badge, an email set up, and to sign a few things. When I am finished, I will join you on the twenty-first floor.”
“She can’t even go to the bathroom without an ID badge,” Mayson pointed out. The magnetic strips on all of the badges are what allowed the employees to move about the building without someone buzzing them in.
Kyle looked from her to me. For a moment, I thought he was going to suggest I pee myself or pee in a bucket in a corner, but he let out a sigh that I just barely noticed and released my arm.
“You have until eleven,” he said, backing into the elevator. “And you better come prepared.”
His cold brown eyes bored into me until the door closed, breaking the contact.
“I told you,” Mayson said as we walked down the corridor. “You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into.”
You’d be surprised what I know…
***
At ten minutes to eleven, I stepped back onto the elevator, toting a company issued laptop, a new ID badge with a hideous picture of me blinking, a stack of papers and booklets outlining company policies, procedures, perks and benefits and Kyle’s brunch that he ordered from the café around the corner and insisted that I deliver to him.
When I walked into the first room full of cubicles, I was surprised to find how understaffed it was. Did everyone go to lunch early? Was there a Sterling Corp cut day that I was yet unaware of? There were twenty cubicles in the room and only half as many people. Everyone looked busy and frazzled and barely looked at me as I passed by towards what I assumed was Kyle's office. I tapped lightly on the door and was rewarded with Kyle barking for me to come in. I pushed open the door and found him seated behind his desk staring intently at his computer screen.
I took a quick look around his spacious office. The entire wall behind him was made of glass, giving him a perfect view of the city and City Hall that he probably didn’t appreciate. There was the usual guest seating in front of his desk, but there was also a couch and big comfortable looking chair in a corner. There was also a small bar and mini fridge, and a small closet. There was another door that I assumed was a bathroom or maybe it lead to a dungeon or a BDSM room. It could have led to Oz for all I knew.
“Please tell me that half of the cubicles in there are empty because half of your staff caught an early flu or they’re on vacation or out to lunch,” I said, placing his lunch on his desk. Without being asked, I put my armful of crap down on a chair in front of his desk and began unpacking the contents of his lunch bag.
“No, Miss Whitman,” he said, not looking up at me. “We are extremely understaffed, which is why I really could not afford to not have you here for the first few hours of the morning.”
“God forbid you would have had to go get your lunch yourself,” I remarked, folding the empty bag.
He glared at me. “Serving my needs is part of your position.”
An unbidden image of me serving his needs and my own burst into my head.
You’ve read way too many erotic romance novels, Lil, I thought to myself as I gathered my crap out of the chair.
“Just point me to my cubicle so that I may begin serving your needs, my Liege,” I sighed.
He growled. Like really growled. “Your office is next to mine, on the right.”
“I have my own office?” I asked, cheering up a little bit. Maybe working for Kyle wouldn’t be so terrible.
“I did just say ‘your office’ didn’t I?” he asked with a cold stare.
I pulled open his office door and stood on the threshold. There was a closed door to my left and a closed door to my right.
“When you said on the right, did you mean my right or your right?” I asked.
I had never seen someone look as irritated as Kyle looked right then. He got up from his desk, marched across the room and firmly gripped my shoulders. He steered me to my right, threw open the door and steered me inside.
“Do you need assistance finding your desk also?” he asked bla
ndly from behind me.
I rolled my eyes, knowing he couldn’t see me. “I’m assuming it’s the giant block of wood over there.”
“You have ten minutes to get yourself situated,” he said and then left me alone in my small, but fashionable and functional office.
I wasn’t into the whole corporate thing, but even I was excited about having my own office, with a smaller but no less spectacular view of the city. I didn’t have a bathroom and a couch in my office like Kyle did, but I had seating for visitors, a place to hang my coat, a small fridge and a big comfy chair at my desk. I had more amenities here than I did in my current living situation. I took one good look out of my window, completely appreciating the view and then quickly got myself “situated” before heading back to Kyle’s office with a pen and notebook in hand.
His lunch was barely touched and he was back on the damn computer. I eyed the soup and salad, thinking about my own lunch. I assumed that I’d be able to go soon, but then again, I was just a servant and probably had to eat the scraps of Kyle’s lunch out of the trashcan instead of enjoying a real lunch.
“There is something we need to quickly discuss and get out of the way,” he finally said after a few minutes. I looked away from his lunch and found him leaning back in his chair, watching me.
“The five hundred pound gorilla in the room?” I asked, meeting his gaze straight on.
“Yes,” he nodded slowly. “The five hundred pound gorilla in the room.”
I took a long deep breath and stared at a pen lying on Kyle’s desk as I spoke. “Listen, I’d rather not discuss it if you don’t mind. Honestly, it hurt a little more than it should have and I’ve had so much pain over the past two years. I’m really just trying to move on with my life, which means I have to focus on the present and the future and not the past. I promise I won’t let my feelings for you interfere with my work here.”
His brow creased in confusion. “You still have feelings for me? After all of this time and the way I allowed you to leave?”
“I didn’t say they were good feelings,” I said quickly. “Regardless of my feelings about you personally, I’m here to work.”
Kyle leaned back in his chair with a loud sigh as his eyes studied me. “It wasn’t my intention to hurt you, especially considering what you did for me.”
I looked at him in surprise. Was that something like an apology?
“I didn’t do anything for you that you didn’t deserve,” I breathed. “Please, can we just get to work?”
After a moment of hesitation, he nodded. He seemed to recover from his moment of sensitivity and said, “I’m still not convinced that this is the right position for you.”
“Well, why don’t you put me to the challenge? When I prove you wrong, I expect a bonus.”
“What if I’m right?” he challenged. “What do I get if you are wrong?”
“A file clerk,” I said dryly.
My stomach chose that moment to rumble in the quiet room. I didn’t give any indication that my stomach had just made that crazy noise. I looked at him, pen poised to write while he stared blankly at me. After a half a minute of this, Kyle raised an eyebrow and a few seconds later pushed his salad across the table.
Chapter Five
Kyle
I almost instantly regretted forcing Lily to begin her position without the orientation Mayson fought me so hard about. She asked question after question, often interrupting me while I was speaking or bursting into my office while I was working, or phoning me after I told her to stay out of my office. When she wasn’t asking me questions, she was asking the staff, which kept them from getting their work done.
I started to tell her this was why she wasn’t right for the job, that maybe she should reconsider taking the file clerk job or perhaps working in the café around the corner, but she halted me mid-word by putting up her hand and pointing at me.
“Don’t you dare say it,” she hissed. “Don’t even consider it. This is your own doing. It was your decision to throw me into this position head first without any training. You can’t deny me the opportunity to ask someone else questions and then get mad when you have to answer them yourself.”
There was nothing for me to say. She was correct. I left her in her office and went back to my own. I sat in my chair, staring out at the busy city as the day winded down and the fall sky grew dim, signaling the darker winter days ahead.
Admittedly, Lily did ask good questions. She asked very specific questions regarding the operation of our department and our clientele and I never had to repeat myself. She asked about my routines, how they could improve and what I needed from her. The following morning she beat me to work as Emmy used to do, except along with my morning coffee she also brought me a muffin and a banana, because “breakfast is the most important meal of the day and you’ll find yourself more focused when you’re not hungry.”
She asked the staff about their needs and concerns and took care of some of it immediately. Within days, she had them eating out of one hand while she cracked the whip with the other. I was impressed, but too proud to admit it. Instead, I increased her work load and added extra pressure. I was still unsure if she was cut out for the job. We were already very busy and work was becoming stressful for everyone, and I wasn’t sure when HR was going to finish filling the necessary positions in my department.
“Kyle?” Lily walked into my office without knocking.
I scowled at her. “Do you believe in knocking?”
She looked up from the file in her hand. “You’re right. I’ll knock next time.”
“What do you need now, Lily?” I asked tiredly. It had been a long day and a long week. Though I would still be working from home over the weekend, I was anxious to get the hell out of the building for a couple of days.
Lily pushed her glasses up on her nose, forgoing her contacts today. Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun, held together by a couple of pencils. She wore a white shirt with a little black scrap of lace peeking through the opening near her ample cleavage, and a red and navy plaid skirt that fit her like a layer of skin and stopped just above her knees. She wore a pair of navy heels, giving her five-three body an extra four inches of height. The glasses, the outfit, and the hair created the illusion of a naughty schoolteacher.
Admittedly, working near her was distracting. I thought she was pretty before, but since she let her hair revert back to its natural colors in shades of reds and browns, took out her eyebrow ring, and eased back on the eyeliner her face glowed with a gentle beauty I didn’t quite see before. She still wore too many bracelets on her wrists, even when she was wearing a long sleeve shirt, and I was sure she was still very much inked under her clothes. The three tiny stars tattooed just behind her ear were still visible when she pulled her hair back, and every once in a while I would catch a glimpse of her tongue ring. Memories of that studded tongue flicking over mine often had me adjusting myself during the workday. It didn’t help matters when she dressed like a schoolteacher in need of a spanking.
I just need to get laid; I thought as she rounded my desk and stood beside me. I inhaled the light floral scent that followed her throughout the office and was thankful I was sitting down and my growing erection could be well hidden. I didn’t know what was wrong with me, why I was unable to look at her without thinking dirty thoughts. The woman drove me crazy, infuriated and frustrated the hell out of me. I often had the desire to throttle her, yet my body had a different reaction.
“I was looking at the report for the Hillsdale file,” she said, laying the file out on my desk in front of me. “There’s a huge discrepancy in here, a very expensive discrepancy.”
I followed her finger down the report as she read. Her breath feathered over my face. It was scented with chocolate and coffee. I was just beginning to wonder how that would taste when I saw the “expensive discrepancy.”
“Shit,” I hissed, snatching the paper up. “Who put this together?”
“Samantha Greski,” she said,
absent-mindedly scratching her head. “I checked the computer log to see who did it.”
“We can’t afford mistakes like this, and this isn’t her first.”
“Or second or third,” Lily said. “I checked on a few of her other files. She’s been very careless.”
“Fire her,” I commanded, slamming the file shut. “And then fix this.”
“How about we just move her to another department?” Lily asked, taking the file from me.
Scowling, I leaned back in my chair and looked up at her. “I’m assuming you have a problem firing a person, which is a problem in of itself.”
She rolled her pretty gray eyes. “I’m not too soft to fire anyone, Kyle. I just don’t think this is the right position for her. She took it because you told her to and she didn’t feel like she had much of a choice if she wanted to keep a job.”
“You’ve been in the company for six weeks,” I said, and sarcastically added, “I’m eager to hear your suggestions.”
Entirely too comfortable in her boss’s office, Lily turned and sat her round ass on the edge of my desk.
“I think she should take a supervisor position in customer service,” she said.
“Oh, I knew this would be good,” I sighed and shook my head.
“You said yourself in her employee reviews that she is dedicated, kind, and eager to please,” Lily argued.
“Those reviews are confidential,” I growled.
“Yeah, but technically, I’m her boss. That doesn’t apply to me. I think she would do really well in a customer service capacity, and if you think about it, you’ll probably agree.”
I was annoyed that she was sitting on my desk throwing me suggestions about how to take care of an employee after only being with the company for less than two months. I was further perturbed by my own inability to come up with a decent plan to keep Samantha employed instead of hurrying to fire her when in the past I had nothing but good things to say about her.
“You have a week to move her to another position,” I said grudgingly.
