by L. J. Dee
“Jessica,” he said again, this time more firmly as I forced myself to look up, my heart blasting through my chest, cheeks burning red under his intense gaze and my legs trembling so badly that I struggled to stand. My feet were iron and I couldn’t move at first, just staring at him as he burned me with those magnificent blue eyes. Oh God, he was going to go fucking crazy.
He walked away and eventually I stumbled out of the bathroom as he sat in his chair facing me, raking a slow and curious gaze right the way over my shaking body. “I’m sorry, Sir,” I tried to say, but it came out as little more than a squeak and I sounded absolutely ridiculous. The tension was unbearable, a heavy silence lingering over the office as we just stared at one another. I wasn’t sure if he was angry, his face was utterly unreadable and I swallowed hard as I eventually broke the gaze and stared at the floor.
“How did you know I was there?” I managed in a desperate bid just to break the silence and it was merely a whisper. He might have only just realised, but what if he’d known all along and said those things to the mysterious Morgan anyway? I needed to know. My brain was racing. It could be a wind up, done to make me feel uncomfortable, a punishment for sneaking into his office, but he didn’t look like he was joking. Nothing about Lucas Hunter right now conveyed humour.
“Well, let me see. There is coffee all over my floor and you are the only person I know that has drinks calamities wherever she goes, my bathroom door is always closed and your handbag is on my counter,” he said as I flushed again.
If I’d been unable to speak before, now my words, apologies and justifications came tumbling out in an unedited stuttering mess. “I’m sorry, Sir, I wanted to see where I’d be presenting on Monday and I thought you might want coffee so I practiced with the machine in case...then I heard you and I thought you’d be mad...I just wanted to make a good impression because so far I haven’t...I’ve messed up..I’m sorry I didn’t mean to...” my voice trailed off as I sighed deeply and risked a glance at him.
I was expecting annoyed and thunderous but I didn’t get it. His eyes were soft as they gazed into mine, a very small curve at the side of his gorgeous mouth. He certainly didn’t seem in the least bit embarrassed, not like me. “I’m really sorry, Sir, are you going to fire me?” I asked gently and his ensuing laughter took me aback.
“I think we’ve already established that I won’t be firing you, Jessica,” he said, obviously referring to the fifty grand pay off he’d owe me if he did.
“So what are you going to do?” I asked as he rose from his chair, striding over to me and gazing so intently with those cobalt blues that my body went into involuntary overdrive, my heart still pounding and there was only one thing I wanted him to do. Jesus, what was wrong with me? I needed to get my head in the game because right now all I wanted was him kissing me, holding me and fucking me instead of Morgan.
I knew it was wrong, that I shouldn’t feel like this. It was absolutely not what the situation warranted, but it was as if a fierce need was winding through my veins like poison ivy, strangling my sense and logic while firing my cells to life.
I could barely breathe with the strength of the connection between us; damp between my thighs and my nipples straining through the stained mess of coffee soaked silk. He looked dark and intense, moving even closer as my body arched instinctively towards him, screaming out for him as I tried to hold my nerve.
He lifted his open palm to the side of my face, not close enough to touch, yet I found myself leaning into it, needing and relishing the feel of his hand on my hot skin. I closed my eyes, basking and floating in instant warmth that had my heart racing. I wasn’t thinking and I needed to...where the hell was my brain?
“I can see what you want me to do Jessica,” he said in a low voice, eyes burning into mine and he was right, but I had to respond, taking the deepest breath I could manage.
“I think we’ve already established I’m not a girl who fucks her boss,” I uttered quickly, forcing myself to take a step back and all but running to grab my bag and out of the door, hearing Lucas Hunter’s low chuckle still ringing in my ears as I hit the pavement outside.
What the hell had just happened?
I looked a mess and I felt a mess and for the first time in my life I decided not to share the incident with my sister. She’d have me dragging him up on a sexual harassment charge, but it wasn’t like that. It was me who was blushing, trembling and as aroused as hell. There was nothing in his demeanour to suggest that he was in any way affected by the whole situation, except his eyes. They had been blazing and then he’d touched me, only he hadn’t. I had touched him, lured like a magnet by the promise of warmth and the suggestion of more.
He’d told me he could see what I’d wanted and he was right. My body had utterly betrayed me and reacted in a way it never had before, and I stood on the pavement panting for air, flushed, gasping and beyond embarrassed. I walked slowly down the street, slumping onto a nearby bench, trying to gather my wits and grateful that the commuters and tourists who were swirling around me weren’t giving me a second glance. This was London, strange things happened on every corner.
My head was spinning and my stomach was in knots, knowing that what had occurred in that office spelt bad news. I had to do a presentation in front of the man on Monday which was already taking me so far out of my comfort zone, and that was before this. I’d have to come to terms with it and it wasn’t as if I could even blame Lucas.
I was the one cowering in his bathroom and eavesdropping on his private conversation. I’d been the one stuttering and spluttering while he stood calmly looking on. I’d even used the word ‘fuck’ – Oh Holy Mary, mother of God. I shrank lower into the cold metal bench, cringing as I replayed the words in my mind. ‘I’m not a girl who fucks her boss’.
What was I thinking? It wasn’t as if he’d asked me to fuck him, it had just popped out. That was my fantasy, not his. I was wincing, drowning in humiliation and paying little attention to the large black car with huge silver wheels that pulled up alongside me as I stared at the pavement.
“Jessica, are you okay?” I heard, looking up into the smiling face of Charlie Hunter who’d stepped out of the car and was regarding me with more than a little curiosity and I couldn’t help but wonder if he knew.
“Can I give you a ride somewhere?” he asked as I shook my head violently, but he wasn’t listening, taking my elbow firmly and guiding me across to the open door of the car.
“Come on, let me run you home,” he said kindly, smiling and bewildered, sliding into the car and patting the seat as I reluctantly slid alongside him, relaxing into the leather until I saw two Armani clad knees sitting directly opposite me. Oh God.
He wasn’t alone and all I wanted was for the ground to open up and swallow me whole, grabbing for the door handle and about to climb out before Lucas closed it, effectively trapping me in the car. I couldn’t even look at him. “Please let me get the tube, it’s too far out of your way,” I said, gazing up as Charlie laughed.
“You don’t even know where we’re going,” he grinned, but I could hazard a guess that they wouldn’t be going anywhere near my side of the city.
I muttered the name of my street quickly to the driver, glancing up to see a slight smirk on Lucas’s face before turning away quickly and straight into the gaze of Charlie whose eyes were moving slowly across my blouse.
“What happened to you?” he asked as I wondered again if Lucas had shared the incident with his brother, something that could only serve to make the whole thing entirely more humiliating.
“I spilled coffee,” I said eventually.
“Shit. Did it burn you?” he asked as I nodded.
“Are you hurt?” Lucas asked quickly as I turned to look at him properly for the first time, floored by the genuine look of concern on his face.
“A little, mainly just my pride,” I said softly, not referring to the coffee and staring into the foot well as though it were the most mesmerising thing I’d ever
seen. He looked like he wanted to say something, but stopped. I risked a glance at Charlie who was looking between us with a puzzled, bemused frown playing across his brow.
I stared out of the window as we made our way slowly through Westminster, gazing at the ancient architecture, steeped in history and watching the tourists with their cameras trained happily on Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. It was easy not to notice the majestic magnificence of this incredible and eclectic city when you were running for the tube or trying to snatch a lunchtime sandwich, and it was rare that I was above ground enough to enjoy it this way.
Charlie and Lucas were involved in a clearly personal conversation and I was grateful to be left out of it, staring mutely out of the window and trying to regain some element of composure, but it wasn’t easy.
“Has the Private Investigator turned anything up on Roman?” Charlie asked as I half listened in.
“No. He had a lead suggesting he might be in Bosnia, but he’s loathed to pursue it. The kinds of people who might have the answers we need are not the types who like to be asked questions,” Lucas replied.
“What now?” Charlie asked as Lucas sighed deeply.
“Fuck knows. I’ve got someone else working on the Special Forces angle. The problem is, everyone he deals with is like him – dangerous and clandestine. Money talks, but loyalty is fierce. It’s like trying to crack a stone wall with a fucking toffee hammer,” he finished before Charlie changed the conversation to their plans for the weekend.
There would be dinners and fundraisers, the races and lunch with their father as I sat quietly, looking as poised as I could possibly manage in my current state. “What plans do you have for the weekend?” Charlie asked as I shrugged.
“No plans,” I replied quietly, hoping that would be the end of it. Unfortunately for me, Lucas had other ideas.
“You’re twenty one, Jessica. I thought you’d be hitting the clubs and bars,” he smiled as I shook my head gently, wondering how he knew my age. It was on my resume, but I was surprised he remembered.
“It’s not really my thing,” I said quietly, turning again to look out of the window, suddenly panicking a mile and a half away from the apartment. “Here’s good, thank you,” I shouted quickly to the driver as he pulled the car to a halt and I glanced up to find Lucas frowning at me.
There was every chance Dex would be standing at the window, looking out and waving to me like he always did, and I had no intention of letting the Hunter brothers know about my son. They’d been judgemental enough over Turnbull and I was finally getting a chance. If they knew I was pregnant at sixteen they would write me off completely. I’d had enough stares, callous comments and gossip over the years to last a lifetime – uncharitable assumptions that held no basis in fact and those seemed to be Lucas Hunters speciality.
“She doesn’t live here, Charlie,” I heard as I climbed out quickly and shut the door, watching the car drive off into the distance and rounding the nearest corner out of sight. I wasn’t sure how he knew. He’d have my address, but I couldn’t imagine Lucas being familiar with this area. Now he’d think I was a liar. Oh well, he’d just have to add it to the rest of my shortcomings. There was no doubt, as far as he was concerned they were already stacking up.
CHAPTER 7
I couldn’t shake my anxious mood all weekend. Luckily Chas was just putting it down to nerves about the presentation and didn’t push the issue. She was out on Sunday, so I took Dexter down to the park to feed the ducks and spent way too long obsessing over what to wear tomorrow. I needed to feel confident, to appear controlled and capable. By the time I’d rummaged through my wardrobe and Chas’s, I knew I’d cracked it.
Black power suit, the highest heels my sister owned and a white silk shirt. Mr Turnbull expected smart, but not suits, and there were no specific rules about dressing for the office. Tomorrow would be different.
I had to be Jessica Evangelista, confident events organiser, not Jess the inexperienced PA in mismatched outfits that no one wanted there. Lucas had featured in my dreams for the last two nights, but I needed to push those thoughts away. The ones that had me fantasising that I was Morgan and that delicious sounding punishment would have been all mine.
I wasn’t and it wouldn’t, so there was little point in spending any more time thinking about it.
I was first up, ahead of the people from the agencies and as Lucas summoned me into his office smiling broadly, my heart was racing, my stomach erupting in butterflies and simultaneously churning. It was a strange, intense feeling that was making me more than a little nauseous. “Good morning, Jessica,” he smiled.
“Good morning, Sir,” I stuttered, forcing myself to take a deep breath and pushing the humiliating events of Friday to the back of my mind. There was no one else here yet as I made my way around to the meeting table.
“Please take a seat,” he smiled, striding towards the coffee machine as I sat watching him. He turned to gaze at me and hit me full on with those beautiful eyes and I swallowed hard. God, this was not going to be easy.
“Can I get you a drink?” he smiled and I giggled slightly, nervousness getting the better of me as I remembered the mess I’d made with that damn machine.
“Do you want me to do it?” I asked, biting my lip as his smile broke into a broad grin and he was laughing now. My little joke had worked and it eased the tension.
“No. I happen to like this suit and the cleaners won’t be in until later,” he chuckled, gesturing me over. “Come here, I’ll show you how it works.” I made my way slowly towards him, relaxing slightly and realising he was trying to put me at ease. I was incredibly grateful for it.
“These three sections represent the three nozzles,” he pointed out and I rolled my eyes at my own stupidity. Of course they did. I wished I’d noticed that on Friday.
“It looks pretty simple now you’ve said that,” I smiled, looking up at him as he smiled back and I swallowed hard, realising that we’d held each other’s gaze for a little too long.
‘Get your head in the game Jess’ I coached myself. It was too easy for him to distract me when he looked that way and I couldn’t allow it to happen during the presentation.
“What would you like?” he asked as I thought about it. Based on my last two experiences, drinks with this man seemed to end in nothing but disaster, but surely I could manage one without destroying my blouse, his shirt or the floor, show him that I wasn’t a total disaster when it came to liquids.
‘I’m going to spank you’. His words rang out in my head as I pushed them away. ‘Concentrate Jess.’
“White coffee please,” I smiled as he pressed the button and the hot liquid flowed seamlessly without incident into the cup below and I couldn’t help but laugh. I took the cup and moved back to the table to put some distance between us. I was certain he wasn’t doing it on purpose, but being so close was distracting. I could feel the heat of his body, a wonderful masculine aroma invading my nostrils as I drank it in. I was relieved when Charlie showed up moments later, smiling broadly. For a split second I wondered again if he’d shared the incident on Friday with his brother.
I needed to stop obsessing, push it to the back of my mind as I picked up my memory stick and walked to the plasma, firing it to life.
I could do this. I was ready.
“Take a seat, Jess,” Charlie smiled as Lucas glanced at him, looking slightly puzzled at the familiar way he’d addressed me. I’d been planning to present from the front, but with only the two of them it seemed unnecessarily formal and would still my quaking legs, so I sat with the remote control in hand and began.
They were full of questions, firing queries all the way through. Where would the car park go? How long would it take to set up? Was it too far out of the city to appeal to the audience?
I’d thought of all these objections and answered confidently and decisively. The site foreman had told me it could be done in a matter of days and would alter the works to accommodate it if required. The co
st would be negligible.
Charlie was very vocal about how impressed he was and my confidence was soaring. I wasn’t sure whether he liked the actual idea, but Lucas congratulated me on how thorough and well thought out the presentation was, and by the time I was dismissed I felt good.
If nothing else, I had put to bed how useless they’d thought I was, a fact that was reinforced when I received an email from Lucas fifteen minutes later asking me to book his flights and accommodation for a business trip to New York. It was a test.
I sought Melody’s advice. “Where does Mr Hunter like to stay when he’s in New York?” I asked as she glanced across at me, narrowing her eyes.
“Why?”
“He’s asked me to book a business trip for him,” I said, unable to wipe the smug little grin from my face as she raised her eyebrows.
“Anywhere but the Waldorf,” she said firmly, returning to her keyboard, clearly not happy. I didn’t trust her for one minute and booked the Waldorf.
I spent the day watching the representatives from the three agencies disappear into Lucas’s office and come out. All had seemed confident and content when they left, certain that whatever they’d done had worked well. I felt that way too, so now it was just a waiting game to see who they’d decide to go with.
I emailed Lucas with the details of his trip. If I’d been wrong about Melody and he hated the Waldorf then I was certain he’d let me know about it. From what I’d witnessed he was far too demanding to settle for less than perfection, and there was plenty of time to change it. I heard nothing back and presumed that was a good sign. What a bitch.
She was out at lunch and the Hunter brothers were still in the office when I took a call, unsure whether to disturb them or not. There were no instructions either way and based on what had happened earlier, I couldn’t trust a damn thing Melody told me anyway. It was nothing like working with Ruby. “Mr Hunter” I said as Lucas answered on the first ring. “Yes, Jessica.”
