by Iona Rose
“I’ll put the noodles on to boil now,” she said. “Do you want something to eat while we wait?”
I turned towards the bucket of cheese balls on the coffee table. “Those will do,” I said, and got up to retrieve them. “I haven’t had these in more than a decade.”
“Tracy is obsessed with them, and her kids love her for it.”
“Tracy’s married?”
“Oh no, I mean her kindergarten class. She’s a teacher, but she just got engaged, about two weeks ago.”
“Congratulations to her,” I said as I brought the bucket of cheese balls over. “I’ll prepare a gift. What does she like?”
She placed the water on the stove to boil, and then came over to me. “Makeup,” she said.
“Well, you’ll have to help me out there.”
I widened my legs so she could stand as close to me as possible, and stared deeply into her eyes as I chewed on one of the balls.
“You should be comfortable here,” she said, as she played with the button of my dress shirt’s collar. “But I don’t want you to take off the waist coat. I love you in them.” She brushed my hair back into place, and then moved her hands across my shoulders, lightly and seductively.
I didn’t even realize it, but I had gone very still.
Then the strap of her dress fell down one shoulder. She glanced at it, and then at me, her lips curving into a taunting smile.
I grabbed her waist, and she giggled in excitement.
She pushed the strap even further down her arm, exposing the pale pink bud of her nipple. Her hand curved around my neck and I was granted full access.
My mouth and hands took complete possession of the weighty mounds until I was no longer content with just one of them. I pulled down the strap across the other shoulder, and soon had both breasts in my hands. I sucked hard on her nipples, lightly grazing the buds with my teeth. My hands moved to her ass just as we kissed, but before I could do anymore, she placed a hand on my chest, and pulled away from me.
My eyes glazed over with pleasure as I watched her slip the straps of her champagne dress back on.
“The water’s boiling,” she said.
I could do nothing more than look on like a tamed animal. I had never felt more at peace or at home. “Do you need some help?” I got up, needing to move, so I could manage my arousal, plus I just wanted to be close to her. She was too far away.
“I forgot to slice some leeks earlier,” she said. “Could you help me? They’re in the fridge.”
I did as I was told and retrieved them. After rinsing them in the sink, I brought them over to the counter.
She came over then, her hands around my waist for a moment. “I’ll get you a board and knife.”
Soon, she returned with two knives, and I was given the needed instructions on how to slice them the way she wanted.
“Do you know how to cook?” she asked, but before I could respond, she added, “I mean beyond your life changing peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”
“I’ll make that for you tomorrow morning.”
“You’re spending the night?” she asked.
I noted the glint of excitement in her eyes. “You don’t want me to?” I teased.
“Of course I do!” she replied.
I couldn’t help my smile. “I think a PB and J is about it, for me. I’ve been eating out for as long as I can remember."
“That’s right.” She nodded. “You mentioned that you never went to college. So how did you get here? And at such a young age?”
Chapter 27
Carter
“My mom. I lost her when I was about eleven, and before then we were living solely with her. So afterwards, our father took us in, but he wasn’t quite ready to be a full time parent.”
“Us? You have a sibling?”
“I do,” I replied. “He was quite the straight arrow, but I on the other hand was incredibly bitter about a lot of things and I remained that way for a while. Losing my mom… it haunted me, too deeply, so it was nearly impossible to move past it. Anyway, when I was sixteen I got a girl pregnant.
Her mouth slightly fell open, so I hurried on to finish the story, “My dad threw me out, so I had to man up real fast so I could be responsible for them. She had a miscarriage later on, but by then I’d chased every job I could find, which included swiping people’s wallets and attending parties I didn’t know, just to see what I could grab from their houses to resell. Eventually, my maternal uncle found out, and got me into an internship program at his friend’s advertising agency in Minnesota, the Zimmerman Group, and that’s where it all started. I think I was about nineteen at the time.” I paused as I put the knife down.
With a smile at me, Leah headed back to the stove.
I turned around to watch her.
She checked the boiling noodles, and then went over to the bubbling sauce by the side. She used a spoon to scoop out a bit of it, and put it to her mouth for a taste.
I was next, and accepted the scoop whole heartedly. The explosion of spices and its creamy consistency truly impressed me. “I love it,” I said.
She narrowed her gaze at me.
“I mean it,” I assured her.
She gave me a quick kiss, her lips tasting mine for a moment before returning her attention back to the stove. “So, how did you get to where you are now? Your head company is really big. With almost six agencies underneath it right?”
I nodded.
“I can’t believe you fooled me. You made me think you were just some employee when we met.” She held out the wooden spoon to hit me.
I dodged it playfully. “C’mon I didn’t fool you. I’m just not into bragging but everything I told you was true. The Dodge campaign I mentioned happened in the last company I worked for before I got fired.”
“What happened?” She asked.
“It was a campaign for Protein World. We used well, a fit girl on the posters to promote their meal replacement supplement, and people lost their minds. They said it promoted an unhealthy body image and began this whole petition to have the ads taken down and the company even boycotted. They lost heavily on sales, at first, and the agency turned on me since I’d been the Creative Director in charge of it. They kindly offered me a demotion but I cursed them out and quit. I didn’t see anything fucking wrong with the ad and told the company to shoot back at its attackers.” I laughed at the reminder. “Well, that was what they did, and things completely turned around. They did millions in sales from people who didn’t want to be consoled for being overweight but were actually looking to put in the effort to look better. The agency tried to call me back then but I refused to return. My current CFO Mark Garritty was my team head at the time, and he was pissed off about my punishment, because he felt it was undeserved, as I had tried to convey the message of the brand as clearly as was expected. So when they failed to bring me back, he got up and resigned.”
“Wow…” she paused, her gaze somber. “That was quite selfless of him.”
“He’s a good guy,” I admitted. "But never tell him that to his face. You’ll never hear the end of it. At the time, he told me not to feel guilty, that he had been planning to resign either way, as the company’s disloyalty to its employees had been pissing him off for quite a while. Patience is not one of his strong suits. At that point, I’d been working for about ten years under supervision, and was sick of it too, so I went to a client I’d handled a campaign for in the past. It was an Australian lifestyle brand and the owner had told me that if I ever wanted to start my own company that he’d be willing to back me up. I went to him, and he was ready. That’s how Mark and I began. It’s been five years now, and although things have not always gone to plan, I really cannot complain.”
I took a deep breath, and released it, exhausted from the day and the talking. I enjoyed opening up to her but talking this much at once, was completely new territory for me. So I headed over to her, my hands slipping around her waist as she transferred the noodles into the sauce. S
he added the shrimp, and grated cheese, and then raised a forkful to my lips for a taste.
I accepted it all, taking as many chances as I could get to kiss her.
Soon, dinner was ready, and we sat down to eat.
“Do you have some wine around?” I asked. “Let’s share a bottle.”
“I don’t,” she said, something akin to alarm suddenly flashing in her eyes, but then her gaze shot over to the coffee table. “Anne brought some wine along with her though.” She went over to the table and returned with the dark bottle, and an apologetic gaze. “It’s nonalcoholic, but it’s still actual red wine.”
“That’s alright. We have to turn up sober at work tomorrow either way.”
I saw her expression change, and although she tried to hide it from me, I knew what was going on.
We began to eat, and I waited for her to talk about it, but when she didn’t I decided to bring it up. “Do you need any help handling Coghlan?” I asked.
She lifted her gaze to mine, a bit surprised.
“I’ve heard,” I said with a smile.
“I swear I’m doing my job the best way I can,” she said, her smile nervous. “Please don’t fire me.”
“That’s up to Henry.” I laughed. “I only have incontestable jurisdiction when someone royally screws up. This does not seem to be the case here.”
“It’s not,” she replied. “I don’t know what he’s expecting, but he’s focusing on the same demographics that every energy drink company in the country markets to, and using the same gimmicks, but yet he’s hoping that we’ll come up with a way to still blow everything out of the park.”
I was concerned at how much this was currently weighing her down. “Let me hear your idea.”
At first, she hesitated, but then she lifted a forkful of noodles to her mouth, and agreed to speak. “I think that the focus should be on young mothers,” she began.
I listened. By the time she was done, I was incredibly impressed by what she had said.
And the moment I told her, her mouth fell open.
“It’s a fresh take and might actually be a homerun.”
“Exactly!” she exclaimed. “How can the freaking owner of the company see this and he can’t?”
I smiled. “Because I don’t know the client, but he does. It was a personal recommendation so I’m sure he’s trying to go over and beyond but not stray too far from what the company will be willing to bear risks for.”
“Ugh,” she groaned. “Those type of clients are the worst. They ask for something out of the box, but still end up pushing for the same cookie cutter tactics.”
I smiled again. “Perhaps what you need is to convince him to go with your idea.”
“I would if he cared enough to listen to me. Every single time we’re in a meeting I’m ignored like I’m not even there. And Henry has little to nothing to say because he’s in charge of the resources, but Daniel is the Account Manger and the Vice President. No one wants to offend him. “
“Try a little harder, if you believe in your idea,” I told her. “You want to focus on mothers, right? Make your suggestion incontestable and I’ll take it from there.”
“Oh no,” she immediately refused. “I don’t want it to seem as though I’m sailing because you’re my boyfriend.
“You will sail,” I corrected her. “Because you’re my employee. I would do the same for any other employee. So do what you need to, and leave the rest to me.”
Her grin tugged at the strings of my heart.
“Yes, sir,” she said but then she got lost in her thoughts again.
I knew exactly where her mind had gone. “Have you ever studied Amazon reviews before? Of other energy drinks?”
“Not exactly,” she said, and then her brows shot up at the suggestion. “You’re right. I can use that to get a glimpse into the mind of people who already consume it.”
I rose to my feet to take my dish to the sink, but she wasn’t yet done with hers so I went past her.
Still she abandoned the plate, and rushed over to me. “You’re right,” she said. “I’ll get right on that, and consumers most times usually blurt out the best damn copies.” Her shoulders slumped again. “I need to talk to a few moms to get their perspectives on this. I should be able to find some on Facebook groups.” She started to head back to her table again, and took her seat.
I let out another suggestion, “Tracy is a kindergarten teacher,” I reminded her. “A gold mine for young moms. Do they have any events coming up soon? Take a couple of the drinks over and chat with them. You might get everything you need.”
Leah jumped up from the stool again, and I couldn’t help my amusement. She was like an ecstatic child.
“You’re fucking right, but wait… I don’t think you can do this. You’re my boss… you can’t be aware that I’m not that smart on the spot.”
“At the office I’m your boss,” I said as I rinsed my hands and grabbed a napkin to wipe them dry. “But right here at home, you’re my girl. No more talk about work. Let’s watch something together or go to bed. Hectic day tomorrow for the both of us.
She rounded up with her meal, while I headed over to her couch. A few minutes later she joined me, her head on my lap as she began to scroll through her phone for some research. I settled in with the news and the time flew by in perfect bliss. Suddenly, there was a thump on the floor and I looked to see that it was her phone.
She was completely knocked out, her eyes closed. I lifted her into my arms, and tucked her into her bed with me, her hands tightening on mine to assure herself of my presence.
Chapter 28
Leah
A few days later, I was knee deep into my research of customer reviews on Amazon when a figure came behind me.
At first, I didn’t notice him, my focus completely on the insight into women’s experiences with the various drinks. One amusingly called the majority of energy drinks, sugared down battery acid, but I was a bit disheartened to hear that what attracted her to the brand she was currently hooked on. It had been her companion all through college and now the daily ‘oomfs’ that she needed to power through her job, and deal with her kids, was the pink color of the can.
Vita 500 was orange, and in a bottle, so I jotted down notes on how to use this point to our advantage. The more common plays of the brand’s contribution to cancer research were recurring, but before I could go any further, Henry’s icy tone gripped me.
“What are you doing?”
I swiveled around in my chair to face him, my cheeks flushed at his sudden presence. I could also tell from his gaze that his question had been rhetorical.
“Didn’t we decide to focus on celebrity endorsement, and entertainment marketing?”
“I know.’’ I cleared my throat. “But it's not a fashion product. Focusing more on its contribution to the everyday reality of our customers would be… I just want to also explore this path a bit mo—”
“Do you hate yourself?” He sniped.
I instantly shrunk back into my shell.
“It’s a question.”
My head lowered. “No, sir.”
“Then why don’t you want to just do what Coghlan asked for, so that we can all move on with our lives?” With a hard look at me, he straightened. “Get the list of plausible celebrities I requested, before the end of the day.”
“Yes, sir,” I responded.
He stormed away.
By lunch time, I needed an escape, so when Jeremy came with the offer to go for a smoothie, I was out of my chair in a flash. He grumbled about his struggle with the new logo for the resort company another team asked him to handle, and I listened as best as I could to take my mind off my own problems.
The elevator to our floor dinged open, but as we moved to take a step in, the singular man that stood in it completely arrested our attention. Today, his suit was a tweed pattern in a chestnut brown that seemed to further bring out the green of his eyes. I remembered waking up in his arms earlier that mor
ning, but when I was finally ready to pull myself out of bed, I’d found that he had left, with a note by my side of how he’d needed to hurry back to his hotel to change.
“Good morning, sir,” Jeremy greeted smoothly as we walked in.
My gaze lowered from his. I could barely control my smile as I thought back to his face buried in my breasts the previous evening. Unfortunately for me, more staff followed our entrance. The elevator picked up more traffic as we headed down, until I was more or less standing in front of him.
In the glorious awkwardness of elevators, no one made a sound but then a heavy hand suddenly slinked around my waist, and I was pulled into him. My body settled with familiarity against his, and it felt as though my bones were beginning to disintegrate into dust.
His hand splayed across my stomach, the gesture of possession undeniable as heat and unbridled sexual tension crackled between us.
The elevator arrived on the lobby, and his hand fell away. I walked out along with the crowd, my mood instantly doing a 180, but Jeremy was close to passing out.
“Did you see the boss? Oh, my God!” He fanned himself. “That man’s going to be the death of me. Leah, have you ever seen someone look so good in tweed?”
I cocked my head at him as we headed out the double doors and onto the street. We continued walking along and although I fought the urge to, I couldn’t stop myself from looking backwards to see as he got into his car.
I bit my lips to hide my smile.
Jeremy turned just in time to see my expression. “What’s making you so happy?” He asked at the permanent upturn of my lips as we headed down the busy downtown street towards a cafe.
I couldn’t tell him, so I just shook my head, and tried to pay full attention to him. Just as we arrived at the coffee house, my phone vibrated with the arrival of a text.
I pulled it out of my pocket to see it was from Carter, and my heart began its calisthenics routine within my chest.
‘Headed to lunch?’ He asked.
