by Lucy Wild
“Open your eyes and look at what you’re doing,” I said as I pulled on the fresh shirt and began buttoning it up.
She did as I asked, glancing at my chest before pointedly looking down at the desk. “There’s your coffee,” she said, turning to go.
“Wait,” I replied, not even sure why I said it. She turned to look back at me and I realised I would have to say something. “Are you any good at taking notes?”
“It’s all I do at college.”
“What’s your name?”
“Natalie Brook.”
“And you’ve just started here?”
“Yep but….”
“I need to get a letter written and if there’s one thing I hate doing, it’s typing. I’d normally use a dictaphone and give it to one of the secretaries but the battery’s dead.” A lie but she didn’t know that.
“I’m supposed to be filing, Sir.”
Something stirred inside me when she said that. It was the way she called me Sir, that was part of it at least. But it was also the way she looked at me. She looked so innocent and flustered, as if she was still getting over the sight of me with my shirt off. She looked completely out of her depth and it made me want to look after her, amongst other things.
“Tell me something about yourself, Natalie. You said you’re at college?”
“I am.”
“What are you studying?”
“English Literature.”
“What’s the plan for after that?”
“I haven’t really thought about it yet. Maybe write a novel.”
“Good at typing, then?”
“Okay, I guess.”
“Then let’s get started,” I said, slipping my tie back on.
“It’s crooked.”
“Excuse me?” I asked.
“Your tie, it’s crooked. Have you got a mirror?”
“Not in here. Would you mind having a look?”
She stood up, and as she walked towards me she looked more out of her depth than ever. She looked scared of me, as if I might bite her. She was right.
I lifted my neck as she straightened my tie out. From this close I could feel her breath on me and even better, I could smell her. She smelt of freshness and innocence. But still she looked so scared.
I felt an anger rise up in me. Someone had treated her badly in the past, I could just tell. I found myself wishing I knew who it was, so I could find them and punish them for it. How could anyone mistreat such an innocent person? “Do you live with your parents?” I asked, the words falling out before I could stop them.
She shook her head. “I live with my housemate. There, how’s that?”
“Much better,” I replied, glancing down. “What’s your housemate like?”
“She’s all right, takes a bit of getting used to but I love her all the same.”
“What about your parents, do you get on with them?”
“Why are you asking?” Her voice was colder and I realised I’d gone too far. Whatever had happened in her past, she was not going to share it willingly.
“Never mind. Let’s get going, shall we?”
She sat down on the far side of the desk and I was glad. I needed some distance between us else the conflicting emotions inside my head would have overcome me. It was hard to explain how I felt as I began to dictate and she took neat notes, her tongue sticking from the corner of her mouth as she concentrated. Part of me wanted to protect her. It was like coming across a bird with a broken wing. It was impossible not to feel a pang of compassion towards her, seeing how frightened she appeared. But there was another part of me that I’d be a fool to pretend didn’t exist.
That part of me, the part that I kept hidden from a world that would never understand, that part wanted to do things to her that were the exact opposite of protecting her. I forced myself to ignore those thoughts as best I could. The only reason I’d been able to keep my reputation in the world was by making sure I only did those things in the most private of places with the few people able to keep my secrets.
A tiny smile flickered across my lips as I thought about introducing her to my world. It would ruin me, for certain, but it would also be a very sweet thing indeed. With her eyes fixed on the pad, I was able to look at her more closely. Natalie Brook, she had called herself. That was far too grown up for my liking. Someone like her, someone so innocent, she could only be a little Tilly. It had been a long time since I’d met someone I’d given a nickname to, and never someone who wasn’t part of my private world.
She looked up at me suddenly and I realised I’d stopped talking. “Where was I?” I asked. “Read it back to me so far.”
“Dear Sirs,” she began and I listened to her talk, wondering if she had the slightest idea what I wanted to do to her at that moment. She must not have had a clue because if she did, I had no doubt she would have sprinted away from my office without ever looking back.
Chapter Four
I hardly got a chance to look at him while he was dictating and that was probably for the best. I felt like a girl caught in the middle of her first crush. It was a ridiculous feeling but I couldn’t shake it off no matter how hard I tried.
Staring down at the notepad he’d given me, I scrawled as fast as I could, my mind continually wandering, as if to sabotage my efforts to appear professional. Twice I had to ask him to stop and recap. Each time he did so, he sighed as if I’d personally offended him. “Why are you unable to keep up?” he asked the second time. “I thought you said you could do this.”
I could hardly tell him I was perfectly capable of keeping up. What I was not capable of doing was shifting the image of him with his shirt off from my mind. It wasn’t as if I’d never seen a topless man before. I only had to sit next to Alison whilst she watched one of her staggeringly formulaic romcoms, ten minutes of set up and the hero always found an excuse to take his top off.
Mr Radcliffe would have fitted perfectly into one of those films. Those muscles were chiselled into him, touching them would be like touching solid rock. I realised I was thinking about touching him yet again and I forced myself to concentrate. Stop acting like you’ve never met a man before.
“And furthermore, in consideration of your last offer, I must regretfully…”
I had never met a man before though, not a real one like this. The guys at college were mere boys in comparison, this was a proper grown up, unlike them. He probably wrestled tigers on his lunch break, before nursing their poorly cubs back to health just to show his soft side. Stop it, stop doing this to yourself. He’d make a great Daddy dom. Stop it! You’ll start blushing.
I glanced up at him as he paused to run through some figures on his computer. That solid jaw, those broad shoulders, arms that would sweep you up and carry you over some threshold to tell you he did give a damn, he gave all the damns in the world. The smirk I’d seen in the photo was absent, in its place was a scowl as he struggled to find what he needed. “We’ll come back to that,” he said at last, getting to his feet and beginning to pace the floor behind me. I could hear his movements as he continued to dictate and a tiny part of me wished he could come closer, put his hand on my shoulder perhaps. Anything to show he saw me as more than just a temp.
It was a stupid dream but it didn’t stop me wanting it to come true. Then I thought about what I was here to do and my heart sank. How was I supposed to sneak round this Adonis in a tie? He’d see through me in a second. Or would he?
After all, he hadn’t realised I’d deliberately spilled coffee on him, hoping as I had that it might give me a chance to get into his office whilst he was away cleaning up the mess. Okay, so the plan hadn’t worked out exactly the way I envisaged but at least I was in his office. I just needed him to leave and then I could rifle through things, not that I even knew what I was looking for. The file had told me nothing other than he’d never been in a long term relationship. “Possibly gay?” it read. Maybe he was but that wasn’t the scandal it might have been thirty years ago.
&
nbsp; I couldn’t stay here for the whole week, I knew that much. I’d end up melting in a puddle on the floor in front of him. The only way I can describe it is that I felt completely safe around him despite his curt manner, safer than I’d ever felt before.
Part of me wanted to be held by him and part of me wanted to see if the rest of him was as chiselled as his chest. I could picture him holding me tight before leading me into his huge Victorian mansion, sweeping us both back in time to an era where I felt I belonged. I could wear a big dress and he could curse it when he tried to get it off me. He’d frown at me for failing to bring him his slippers, tell me he loved me whilst taking me over his knee to spank my bare behind.
I could feel my cheeks burning as the thought of him spanking me flashed through my mind. Now you’re being ridiculous, I told myself. Snap out of it. He’s your boss and if you do the thing that you need to do, he’s not going to spank you, he’s more likely to sue you into bankruptcy. Concentrate!
I realised I’d missed his last few sentences and I looked up to see him on the phone. I watched as his lips thinned. “Right,” he said in a cold voice. “No, it’s fine, if they need their hands holding, so be it. Just tell them I won’t forget it next time their reviews are due.” He put the phone down and turned to me. “I’ve got a meeting to go to.”
Perfect. I could hunt through his drawers while he was gone and get out of here before I either asked him to be my new daddy or asked him to marry me. It was going to be one of the other if I was by his side much longer. He walked over to the door, turning back to glare impatiently back at me. “Well?”
“Well what?” I asked, regretting how rude I sounded as soon as the words were out of my mouth.
“Well get up out of that chair and follow me. Or do you plan to take notes from here while I’m in the car?”
“Right,” I blustered, stumbling over my words. “Of course, sorry. I’ll just get my handbag.”
“Leave it. It won’t go anywhere.”
I scurried after him as he marched through the office, voices fading as he walked by. He seemed to scare everyone we went past, though I wasn’t sure why. He was brusque, sure, but he didn’t seem that bad a boss to me. I’d poured a drink over him and he hadn’t even raised his voice. But then of course, at that stage, I had no idea what he was capable of.
He pressed the button for the lift and waited, tapping his foot impatiently while I tried not to panic about leaving my phone behind. When the doors finally swung open, they revealed a man and a woman laughing together. They took one look at Mr Radcliffe and the smiles slid from their faces. “Good morning, Sir,” the woman said as the man nodded beside her. Together they stepped past and we walked inside, me clinging onto my notepad like a security blanket. Why was everyone so scared of him? Why did I suddenly feel scared of him?
He didn’t say a word as the lift descended, leaving me to glance at him in the mirrored walls, wondering how I was going to find anything out about him. “Where are we going?” I asked as the lift doors opened and we stepped out.
“Across town,” he replied brusquely, walking towards the front door of the building. A sleek black car was waiting right outside, the door held open for him. “Thank you, Rupert,” he said as he climbed in. “Come on!” he snapped at me as I stared at the car. “We’re going to be late. Haven’t you ever seen a limousine before?”
“Not since my school prom,” I replied as I climbed in and took the seat next to him. “At least this one’s not filled with screaming teenagers.”
“It’s their day off,” he replied and although he didn’t smile, I saw a flicker of life in his eyes. He did have a sense of humour then.
“Do you always travel by limo?”
“Not if I can avoid it but they sent a car for me and it saves using mine.”
“You can tell me the truth, you know,” I said with a smile.
“What truth?”
“That you can’t afford the petrol.”
I managed to get a slight upturn of his mouth, just at the corners, but it was enough. “Let’s carry on,” he said. “Should be done by the time we get there.”
He carried on as if we hadn’t left the office, paragraph after paragraph of legalese that bored me senseless. I had gone through about eight pages of notepaper before noticing we’d come to a halt.
“Yours sincerely, Mason Radcliffe,” he said, his door opening a second later. “How’s that for timing?”
I went to climb out after him but he shook his head. “You stay here. I won’t be long.”
“Right,” I replied, sinking back into my seat. “If you’re sure.”
But he was already gone. Rupert walked off with him leaving me alone in the car. I felt like a child, if he’d told me not to play with the windows while he was gone, I wouldn’t have been that surprised. I couldn’t even use my phone, it was still in my handbag at work alongside the jacket he hadn’t given me time to collect. The anxiety I felt at being without it felt overwhelming. To centre myself and try and stop the panic attack I could feel building inside me, I ran my hands out along the leather either side of me, sighing as I did so. The fingers of my left hand brushed over something hard and I looked down, assuming it was part of the seatbelt. It wasn’t. It was his phone. I’d seen him put it in his trouser pocket in the office, it must have slipped out while we were driving. Was I really going to get that lucky?
I picked up the phone. It was just like him, solid, cold and fully charged. Holding my breath, I pressed the power button but of course it was fingerprint protected. How naive was I to think it might be unlockable? Putting it back down on the seat, I looked around me. The only other thing in sight was a net rack on the back of the driver’s seat. Inside was a collection of magazines and having no idea how long he’d be, I pulled them all out to flick through, expecting ‘scintillating ways to spice up your pasta,’ style articles that the first cover suggested.
After running my eyes over them all, I frowned. There was a tiny little A5 one slipped inside Business Weekly. It had an image of a schoolgirl on the front cover. No, that wasn’t right. She was a woman dressed as a schoolgirl. Intrigued, I opened it to find it filled with stories. The more I read, the more I began to wonder about Mr Radcliffe. They were stories of a distinctly erotic nature, filth, to put it bluntly. Were they his? It was like someone had written down my forbidden fantasies straight from the darkest corners of my brain.
Looking up as a shadow passed the car, I felt immediately guilty, as if I’d been caught reading something I shouldn’t. But then I saw it wasn’t him, it was someone else. It was a man and I realised as he passed that the tint on the window meant I could see him but he couldn’t see me. The car park was full of vehicles but there were no people around other than him. He looked out of place, something about his clothes didn’t fit in though I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what. Then I worked out what it was.
He was walking along the row of cars opposite me, trying the door handle of each one. He stopped a few cars down, settling on a silver Mercedes. Glancing about him, he pulled something out from inside his jacket, it looked like a long strip of metal. Either he was a car thief or Mercs had gone massively ostentatious in their key design. I pushed my door open, hoping the sight of someone watching would send him running. I stuck my head out and shouted, “Oi! What are you doing?”
He looked frightened at first when he saw me but then he grinned, taking a step towards me, the metal thing still in his hand.
“Have you got the keys for that thing?” he asked, halving the distance between us.
“Get away from here or I’ll call the police,” I shouted, going to pull my door shut again.
I was too slow and he got his fingers on the door before I got it closed, yanking it open and looming over me, filling the doorway. “No, you won’t,” he said, his free hand darting down and grabbing the phone off the seat. “Not if I take this.”
Chapter Five
I scrambled backwards across the seat of the l
imo, lashing out with my feet at the figure clambering in towards me. Just as he lunged at me, I heard Mr Radcliffe’s voice outside the car.
“That’s mine, I think.
The car thief turned his attention from me, twisting his head round to look behind him. In the time it took him to do that, he was grabbed by the ankle and dragged out of the car, a look of surprise on his face that made me giggle despite my fear. He landed on the tarmac, scrambling to his feet as Mr Radcliffe leaned in towards me. “Are you all right, Tilly?”
“Look out!” I shouted, seeing the car thief over his shoulder, lunging towards him with his fists clenched.
Mr Radcliffe leapt forwards into the car, landing in my lap as the attacker’s swinging fist slammed into the metal door frame. The car thief let out a shriek of pain, staggering backwards, looking down at his hand which was already beginning to swell in size.
“Excuse me one moment,” Mr Radcliffe said as he untangled himself from me. He climbed back out of the car, taking a step towards the car thief who took one look at him, then turned, sprinting off in the opposite direction.
“Your phone!” I called out to him. “He’s got your phone.”
“No he hasn’t,” Mr Radcliffe replied as he sat beside me again. “It’s next to you.”
“He…he must have dropped it.”
“Indeed he must. And like the police at the end of Cop Buddy Car Chase Three, here comes Rupert now it’s all over.”
The driver crossed the car park, climbing into the front seat before looking back at us both. “Everything all right?” he asked. “Ready to head back?”
“Give us a moment,” Mr Radcliffe replied, turning to me. “I think I should drop you off at home. You look white as a sheet. Did he hurt you at all?”
“No, I’m fine. It was just a bit scary.” I didn’t want to appear more of a child than I already felt. My heart was still pounding and in my head, Mr Radcliffe was clad in shining armour, rescuing me from an evil dragon. He’d look good in armour, on the back of a horse with a sword in his hand. It was a nice image.
