“Why not?” she asked.
“Because I work for him. It’s going to be weird enough as it is. He didn’t even come into the office yesterday. I think he was avoiding me. I didn’t mind, though, because I wasn’t sure what I would say to him. I’ve never done that before.”
“You have a son. You aren’t Mary. You’ve done it before.”
I slapped at her arm. “Stop it. You know what I mean.”
“So, the job has some extra benefits. I think that could be a good thing. You’re both adults and a little extra flirting and touching could make the day go by so much faster while adding a little spice to your life.”
I watched Jake splash and play by himself. He was very good at keeping himself entertained, but I understood why he wanted a little brother or sister. I had grown up an only child. I had grown up an only everything really. It had been a lonely existence at home, but at school, I had some friends. Jake and I were very different in that way. He was a loner and I was drawn to people.
“He wants a little brother,” I said, my eyes still on him.
“Jake?”
“Yes, Jake.”
“You keep working where you are and doing those extracurricular activities, he might be getting one.”
I slowly shook my head. “No way. I do not want to do the single mom thing again. I do not want to bring another child into the world that will not have a daddy in his life.”
“You couldn’t have known that would happen the first time around,” she said.
I shrugged. “I should have known. We were both young and he was never going to settle down. I liked playing with fire and I got burned. Not burned, because I don’t regret having him, but it would have been nice to have had a little help.”
“That’s not something you’ll have to worry about if you get knocked up by your boss. Hell, you would be set for life if you had his child. Maybe this is something you should consider.”
I pulled off my sunglasses and frowned at her. “How could you even think something like that?”
She shrugged. “Because you had sex with him and it’s a possibility you could be pregnant right now, right?”
I cringed. “Things did happen kind of fast,” I admitted, feeling like an irresponsible kid.
“Then you might be giving Jake what he wants and what you need.”
I shook my head. “No way. I am not going to use a child as an ATM. If—and it’s a really big if—I did happen to get pregnant, I don’t know if I would tell him.”
“Oh, because that’s so much better than taking his money for the support of the child he created during a wild night of passion?”
I sighed, putting my sunglasses back on. “I’m not going to worry about any of that. It’s fine. No point in worrying about something that isn’t a problem.”
“I think Jake would make an excellent big brother. And I would babysit. My biological clock is sounding like a gong in my head, but I don’t actually want a baby. You can share yours with me.”
“It doesn’t quite work like that.”
She laughed. “But we could make it work like that.”
I shook my head and turned my attention back to Jake. I let myself daydream a little about what it would be like to be pregnant with his child. The child would definitely have black hair. I wondered if he or she would be tall like him or short like me. I wanted our baby to have his eyes. I loved that they had a serious, stormy, yet intensely beautiful tone.
“He’s really not as bad as people think,” I said, more to myself than her.
“If you say so, but then again, you’re the one sleeping with him. You might be a little biased.”
“I’m not sleeping with him. It was a one-time thing and we both agreed it couldn’t and shouldn’t happen again. There had been a lot of tension between us. The quickie was a way to relieve the tension. Nothing more.”
“If you say so,” she said with a small laugh. “You keep trying to convince yourself, not me. I’m telling you to do whatever you want. You’ve been a good girl for a very long time. Having a little fun isn’t a bad thing. If you need me to watch Jake again, let me know. Maybe you guys can go out for a real date.”
I smiled and let myself think on that for just a minute. “I couldn’t. I would never fit into his world. He’s rich and powerful and people know who he is. I’m just me. The office is where it ends for us.”
“We’ll see,” she said, leaving the words hanging between us.
We would see, but I already knew how it would play out. Ashton wasn’t the kind of man a girl could really see herself settling down with and having a family. He was a very closed man. He didn’t give anyone the impression he liked them.
I couldn’t ever see him as a family man. He was a lone island and I had a feeling he liked it that way. I wasn’t going to try and change him. I had made that mistake once already.
I wouldn’t do it again.
Chapter 21
Ashton
I showed up at the office a little earlier than usual. I didn’t even want to give myself a chance to think about why. That would only panic me and end up with me finding another excuse not to go in. I was going to have to see her eventually. I wanted to see her. That was the problem.
I wanted to see her a little too much. I had no business thinking of her as anything more than my secretary. What had happened between us was a one-off. It wasn’t going to happen again.
Every time the thought crossed my mind, it was quickly chased away by the memory of her tight little body squeezing around mine as she orgasmed. The taste of her lips and the feel of her soft, supple skin under my touch was going to be one of those things I didn’t forget for a long time to come.
No one was in the office yet. I loved the silence, the feel of a fresh new week waiting to spring to life. I paused about halfway down the hall that led to my office and slowly walked backward. I flipped on the light and looked around at the waiting area. It was all different. It was the same furniture but rearranged. There was a new potted plant on a shelf in the corner.
I didn’t have to wonder who was responsible for the changes. I made my way toward my office and stopped again when I saw the little changes to her little space. I turned my head toward my closed office door and was almost afraid to look inside. I wasn’t big on changes.
“Good morning,” Willow’s voice said.
I turned to see her walking down the hall with a coffee in hand. I couldn’t remember ever seeing her with a cup from a coffee shop. She was one of those that always brought her own in her to-go mug. “Hi,” I said. “What happened?”
“What happened?” she repeated the question. “I think you mean look at how nice and inviting the place looks. It doesn’t look like a military waiting room with nothing to soften the place up. It’s a huge upgrade. Thank you. That’s what you meant to say, and I will say you’re welcome.”
I opened my mouth and quickly closed it again. It wasn’t a battle I was going to win. “Thank you.”
She moved around me to take a seat at her desk. “You have about thirty minutes and then you need to get going.”
“Where am I going?” I asked. I wasn’t myself. My brain felt muddied. She seemed totally normal and I was struggling to string a complete sentence together. I told her I wouldn’t be weird, and there I was, being very weird. At least, I felt weird.
“You have the meeting with that clothing company that wants a merger,” she reminded me.
I inwardly groaned. How could I forget something so damn important? “That’s right. Am I going to find any surprises in my office?”
She quirked an eyebrow. “If you’re expecting a scantily clad woman to pop out of a cake, no.”
“Furniture. Did you rearrange my office?”
“No. That is your domain and I didn’t touch it. Although if you wanted me to, I do have some ideas.”
“No thanks,” I answered and went inside my office, still expecting to see something changed. The first thing I looked at was the large wooden d
esk, befitting the CEO and founder of a successful company. It wasn’t the desk I was really seeing. In my mind, I was seeing her perched on the edge with just her bra on and looking at me with desire all over her face.
I pulled my mind back to the present. I couldn’t let myself go down that rabbit hole again. I had spent most of the weekend in that hole with lots of new fantasies being born in record speed. I sat down at my desk and quickly checked my email. An idea occurred to me while I sat there wondering what she was doing.
“Willow,” I called, knowing she could hear me through the partially open door.
“Ashton,” she called back.
I rolled my eyes. The woman didn’t have a professional bone in her body. She was all sass and playfulness. She was a good worker, but I didn’t get the idea she took any of it all that seriously. “Willow,” I said again.
A few seconds later she appeared in my doorway. She was wearing a flirty skirt with a hemline that swayed just below her knees. My eyes went to her breasts. The black blouse she was wearing was tightly tucked into the skirt, showing off the perfect round globes that I remembered filling my hands so perfectly. “Did you forget how to use the intercom? Or your legs?”
I smirked, loving her sassy attitude. “I did not forget either.”
“What do you want?” she asked.
“Go with me.”
“Go with you where?”
“The meeting. I might need your moral support.”
She rolled her beautiful blue eyes. “You don’t need my moral support. It’s the people you are meeting with that need moral support.”
I winked. “Then I need you there to hold me back.”
She let out an exaggerated sigh. “If you insist.”
“I do.”
She grinned. “I was wondering if you were going to ask. I dressed up for the big meeting.”
I should have known. “All right. Be ready to go in five.”
“I’m just waiting on you.”
I got up from my desk, slid my cell into my inner pocket, and followed her out. She had her purse slung over her shoulder and was waiting for me. We walked out of the office together, hitting the sidewalk like we had done it a hundred times before. “I should have called a car.”
“Already did,” she said.
As if on cue, a black car pulled up to the curb. The woman amazed me. I stepped forward and opened the door for her. She climbed in, holding her skirt down as she did. She slid across the seat, making room for me. “You’re getting pretty good at this secretary thing.”
“Getting? I am good. You just haven’t noticed yet.”
I shook my head. The woman was full of witty comebacks. “You said you didn’t have any real experience as a secretary.”
“But I have a lot of experience at doing all kinds of things. It all adds up to make one really great secretary.”
“Maybe that’s what I’ve been doing wrong this whole time,” I murmured to myself.
“What have you been doing wrong?”
“I’ve been hiring people based on their experience as a secretary. I was wrong.”
She smiled. “Are you saying I broke the mold? That I’m the best secretary that ever happened?”
I smirked. “You certainly are the most humble.”
She shrugged. “When you’re good, you have to make sure the people you work with know you are good. It’s how you get ahead. If you’re meek and quiet, you don’t get noticed.”
I agreed with her. “You get noticed.”
“So, I know you said you’ve been working at this business for a while, but what did you do before?”
“Before?”
“How many jobs have you had?”
I thought about my rather complicated past. “I don’t know. A lot.”
“Doing what? Were you ever a waiter?”
“No. Never a waiter. I did work at a movie theater about a million years ago. I was the kid that made the popcorn.”
She smiled as if that was the best thing she had heard all day. “You made popcorn?”
“I did,” I confirmed. “Although I probably burned more than any normal person.”
“What else?”
It felt like an entire lifetime ago. “I worked in an accounting office for a bit. I worked at a hotel.”
“Did you go to college?”
I nodded. “I did. USC.”
“Wow!” she exclaimed, obviously impressed. “That is really cool. I always dreamed about going there.”
“Did you go to school?”
She looked away, her gaze going out the window. “No. I didn’t get the chance. Life happened, and I kept hoping I would get to go later, and then, well, life is life. It just keeps happening.”
She had a past. I was interested but I didn’t want to pry. It was none of my business. “Seems like life keeps happening. I suppose that’s a good thing.”
She softly laughed. “I think it is. I don’t have any regrets. Maybe all my experience was building me up to be your secretary.”
“What did you do? Waitressing?”
“I’ve done that, a lot. I’ve done telemarketing. I’ve done housekeeping. I’ve worked as a clerk at a grocery store. You name it and I’ve probably done it.”
She had many talents. I knew that firsthand. “Jack of many trades.”
“I guess you could say that. So, what’s the meeting about?”
“Meeting?” I asked.
“The one we are going to. Did you get drunk last night? You’re acting a little off.”
“I didn’t get drunk last night. I’m just trying to keep up with the constant change in subject. I think you forget I can’t read your mind.”
Her soft laughter floated around me. “You are not the first person to tell me that.”
“The meeting is a merger proposal with one of the leading labels in men’s clothing.”
She looked thoughtful. “Is that a good thing?”
“It could be. I’m going to propose a new line, a less expensive line of suits, to sell in the retail stores. I don’t want to cheapen my brand. This is a way for me to have the best of both worlds.”
“I’ve heard of other companies doing that. You have to do what’s best for you.”
The car pulled to a stop in front of one of the new high-rise buildings in town. I knew the real estate was extremely pricey. I had thought about moving my offices to the upscale building but then decided against it. I didn’t like high overhead. My office was just fine, and I didn’t need to worry about trying to look pretentious. My suits and my company spoke for themselves.
“Holy shit,” she breathed. “I saw this building on the news. It’s supposed to be all high tech and fancy.”
“Play it cool,” I told her as we climbed out of the car.
She slapped at my shoulder. “You play it cool.”
“I’m always cool,” I assured her.
“Do you think we’ll have to go through some security check?” she asked with a worried look.
“Are you packing heat?”
She grinned. “Look at you with the witty comebacks. I’m proud of you.”
“Let’s go in before you drool all over the sidewalk.”
Her eyes widened. “Damn, another one. I’ve created a monster.”
I walked into the building. I was taken aback by the opulence. It was obvious the owners of the building wanted to sell the idea of luxury. There was a huge water wall front and center, creating a tranquil setting in a sea of stone and gray tones.
“This way,” I told her, walking toward a touchscreen display. I entered the name of the company and found they were on the eighth floor.
“Oh. My. God.”
“Shh,” I hushed.
“I imagine this is how the other half lives all the time, but I have never seen anything so—so—grand. Like I expect to see the Queen of England emerge. I don’t know how to curtsy.”
I rolled my eyes, reaching for the button to call the elevator. I wasn’t co
nvinced she wasn’t a little bit crazy. “You won’t have to curtsy to anyone.”
“I hope not. Otherwise, I’m going to pull a hammy or land on my face. Neither would be good.”
I turned to look at her. She was leaning against the back wall of the elevator as if the sentence she had just said was totally normal. The woman kept me guessing. I didn’t think I would ever be able to predict what she was going to say or do.
I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about that.
Chapter 22
Willow
I couldn’t seem to close my mouth. I kept looking around in complete awe. Everything was so shiny and fancy. The mirrored walls of the elevator made it feel so much bigger than it was. It actually reminded me a bit of the maze Jake and I had gone to.
When the elevator dinged, it didn’t just ding. It was more of a soothing chime. Even the elevator sounds were fancy. We stepped out, and marble floors greeted us. It felt sterile and so damn clean. I could still smell the scent of fresh paint on the walls done in a warm greige tone. The entire floor appeared to be dedicated to just the one business. There were huge posters adorning the walls of men in a variety of poses and outfits.
“Close your mouth,” he whispered.
I snapped it shut as we stepped into the massive sitting area. There was a full coffee bar along one wall with pastries, muffins, and an assortment of fresh fruit. I couldn’t believe a person could eat a full meal just before showing up for a meeting.
“Why don’t we have this at our office?” I hissed. “At least in the breakroom.”
“Because this is over the top.”
“Can I have a banana?” I asked.
He frowned. “No, you can’t have a banana.”
I pouted. “What about one of those blueberry muffins?”
“Willow, we are here for a business meeting. It isn’t a buffet.”
“Well, they have it laid out like a buffet.”
He ignored me and walked toward the giant receptionist desk that was my exact vision of what it would look like at the pearly gates. A beautiful blond woman sat behind a tall desk that looked to be made of pearl and marble. I watched her watch Ashton and suddenly wanted to claw her eyes out. She was the devil sitting behind the pearly desk.
Spring It On Me Page 13
