“Mary Elizabeth I need you in my office.”
Mr. Kent was short and to the point. Clearly he wasn’t going to win any congeniality awards any time soon.
I picked up my laptop, and quickly walked to his office.
“Good afternoon Mr. Kent.”
“Put your things down over there,” he said as he pointed to a small desk in the corner of his office.
I set my laptop on the tiny desk and took my seat.
“Do you know how to take dictation?”
“Of course.”
I clicked the icon to open up Microsoft Word and positioned my fingers on the keys, waiting for him to begin.
“I need you to type up a few formal letters for me. I want you to type them up and then get them back to me within the hour. Remember to double, or even triple check them, to ensure there are no errors. Do you understand?”
“Of course Mr. Kent.”
I had to stare at my computer, rather than look at him while I cursed my reaction to him. As his scent washed over me, my body, which seemed to have a mind of its own lately, tingled in anticipation of his touch.
I needed to get control of my emotions before I ended up doing something stupid like jumping on his lap or begging him to throw me over his desk. It wasn’t like I was a hormone addled teenager so I couldn’t understand why I was reacting so strongly to this man. I’d never done it before. Yes he was attractive but I’d been near countless hot guys before. Why this guy? And why now? I needed this job. I couldn’t let something stupid like crushing on a co-worker or one of the bosses get in the way of my success at my first chance at a real job, a real career.
I’m almost twenty-one years old. I have my whole life ahead of me and lots of time to find love. Now was the time I needed to be focusing on my work. Love would come later. Love? Seriously? Oh God. This thing with Mr. Kent wasn’t love. It was lust. I’m so ridiculous.
Finally I pulled myself together and took down everything he had to say. This wasn’t the first time I had taken dictation, but it was most definitely the hardest. Trying to focus on what Mr. Kent was saying was damn near impossible.
“That will be all,” he finally said.
“Okay, I’ll have these done in a jiffy,” I said nervously as I walked out the door and back to my own office.
Chapter 3
I stepped off the elevator with a big smile on my face. I’d been at my new job for over a month now and I was finally getting the hang of everything. I loved the work I was doing and felt confident that I was getting everything down pat. I was also getting to know some of the people from the office and it felt good to make friends. Mr. Moretti even smiled at me, not once but twice in the last few days.
As I turned the corner, heading towards my office I almost ran right smack into David da Luca.
“Hey now, be careful there.”
“Oh my goodness, Mr. da Luca I’m so sorry. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.”
“I noticed,” he replied teasingly.
“I’m so sorry.”
“It’s fine, really,” he chuckled. “No harm, no foul.” The corner of his lips turned up to a sexy smile.
I might not date a lot but I wasn’t exactly unaware of the subtle signals he had been sending my way.
I looked at the man, really looked at him and wished I felt the tiniest spark of interest in him, but I didn’t. And I didn’t know why. He was normally the kind of guy I would date. He was well dressed, decent looking but not overwhelmingly so like Devlin Kent. David was a nice guy with a sense of humor.
He also didn’t give me butterflies or make my cheeks flush. He was safe and he wasn’t my boss. So why did the thought of going out with him make my stomach turn?
I glanced over my shoulder and noticed Devlin standing in his office door glaring daggers at me and David. I don’t know why he would be upset, we were just chatting. It wasn’t even anything someone might mistake as a casual flirt.
Sure I smiled at David as he talked to me, but I tried to smile at everyone. Everyone that is, that wasn’t barking orders at me like Mr. Kent. Okay, maybe David da Luca was flirting with me a little, but what did Devlin care?
It irritated me that I cared what he thought. I tried to convince myself that he only did so because he knew office romances inevitably caused poor work performance when they went south. But truth of the matter was, I wanted him to care because he cared about me.
I wanted him to storm over to us and stake his claim on me. Which was completely ridiculous, I know. But hey, a girl can dream, right?
Later that day he called me into his office. When I came in and sat down, he stood up, looming over me. I sighed as I lifted my head to look at him, knowing he was in a mood.
“I don’t like office romances. They cause nothing but trouble. Though it isn’t a policy, it’s greatly frowned upon.” He informed me in his most stately tone of voice.
I had to silently count to ten before responding. I knew right away that he had seen Mr. da Luca flirting with me, but it wasn’t my fault. I hadn’t flirted back nor did I encourage his advances. It wasn’t fair that Mr. Kent was coming down on me for something I didn’t do.
“Thank you for letting me know about the company policy Mr. Kent but I don’t think there is anyone here I would be interested in dating so I don’t think this will be an issue with me.”
Devlin opened his mouth to respond, then quickly shut it.
“Okay then Miss Seabrook. I just wanted to make sure you understood my feelings on the matter.”
“Mr. Kent, I don’t think who I date is really relevant to my job.”
Suddenly he was inches from my face. “When you work for me Miss Seabrook you will listen to what I say.”
“Well then Mr. Kent, it’s a good thing I don’t work for you then isn’t it? If you recall, I work for Mr. Moretti.”
That only seemed to infuriate him more.
“David da Luca is a womanizer and I don’t want to deal with the repercussions when he throws you out with the trash the next day and believe me he will, that’s just how he operates.”
I leaned back trying to put a few inches between us, my heart beating uncontrollably. I suddenly found myself with the overwhelming urge to reach out and kiss him. I wanted Devlin Kent. Everything about him screamed sex and if he leaned in just another inch and claimed my mouth, I’d welcome it.
Okay, sure I knew it was irrational and I should have my head examined for lusting after him but I’d been dealing with the heat coming off of him in waves for a month now and I wondered if my imagination would do justice to what it might feel like to actually kiss him.
How bad could one kiss really be? At least then I’d figure out it was probably all in my imagination -- the sparks, the desire, the chemistry.
For what seemed like an eternity I couldn’t break eye contact. I knew I couldn’t follow through with my desire. Or could I? I could lean in that extra inch and taste his lips.
No, I can’t. ‘Look away,’ I told myself.
Finally I found the willpower to turn my head, having no idea how long we had been there, face to face.
Realizing how close I’d come to closing that gap and kissing him, shocked me. I took a deep breath and willed my body to return to normal. I hadn’t felt such an intense desire for a man before. I wasn’t used to being this out of control.
If I hadn’t found the willpower to break our eye contact I knew I would have kissed him and feared that single kiss would have sent me over the edge. I needed to regroup and expend some of this pent-up energy.
Chapter 4
On the first Friday of every month, most of the office would meet at the bar just down the street, for a drink. It was an Ashworth and Kent tradition, dating back to when the firm first opened in the early 1900s in England and apparently every location, still to this day, got together once a month.
While you weren’t required to go, it was something the higher ups greatly encouraged. They felt it foste
red a strong team spirit. In a way I really think it did. Everyone mingled with everyone else from the highest ranking partner to the lowliest mailroom clerk. They laughed and sang karaoke together and shared a beer like they were all old friends and not co-workers or employer and employees. It was nice.
While I was never really a big drinker, even I would have a glass of wine or two with everyone at the bar on the first Friday of every month, just like the rest of them.
At first I sat towards the end of one of the big tables, trying not to be noticed. But over time I started making friends and eventually really started to look forward to those Friday nights when we would all get together.
My best friend at the office was a girl named Sandy. While we didn’t really work closely together, we always seemed to find each other come Friday night or any office social gathering.
She was quite a bit older than me and had been at Ashworth and Kent for more than ten years and she knew all the gossip. I think that’s what I loved most about her. If you wanted to know who got in trouble or who was hooking up, all you had to do was find Sandy and get a few drinks in her. That girl couldn’t keep a secret to save her life.
Which is why it was odd I would be stupid enough to confess my secret crush on Devlin Kent to her of all people.
“Alright girls, settle down,” Sandy said. “It’s time to get down to business.”
All of the girls at the table giggled. We knew what that meant. It was time to play a round of rate your co-worker. And by co-workers of course that meant the sexy men in the office.
Sandy pulled out her notepad and started going down the list of names. We would all shout out a number, from one to ten to rank the person in question. Sometimes we would stop to explain why we rated the guy in question a certain way.
Edward Latimore, for example I ranked a six. Great ass, but horrible breath. The finest ass in the world couldn’t make up for all that garlic the man ate.
Tina, another girl who typically sat at our table gave her boss, Mr. Bancroft a two, because he was always short with her, but the rest of us gave him a seven, because he was pretty sexy, so we could overlook his surly demeanor.
The one name all the girls agreed on was Devlin Kent. A perfect ten every time. He always won the game as the hottest man at Ashworth and Kent. Then again, how could he not with those steely grey eyes and rock hard body? He was the epitome of manliness and his British accent didn’t hurt either.
Devlin was also the only man on our list that wasn’t married or didn’t date. At least not anyone from the office. As far as anyone knew, all the man ever did was work. If he did have a private life or dated anyone, nobody knew about it, not even Sandy.
And that’s saying a lot because I don’t think in the year I’ve now worked at Ashworth and Kent, I’ve ever heard of a single piece of gossip she didn’t know about.
I think to some extent, every girl in the office had a thing for Devlin. It was hard not to. He was a very sexy man with broad shoulders and a dominating presence about him. When he was near, he owned the room. He spoke with authority and people around him paid attention. It’s part of what made him such an amazing lawyer.
If the man said drop your panties, you would just do it. You wouldn’t question him because he had that way about him that made you trust him and you knew that if he told you to do something, it was because it was the right thing to do.
Our game was interrupted by a drunken co-worker laughing loudly as another man looked down the front of her low cut dress. I wasn’t a virgin, but I wasn’t exactly the office slut either. That distinction fell to Brianna Bristow. She was the biggest whore and didn’t seem to care that people knew that about her either. She was pretty enough I guess, and used her sexuality to try and get ahead or get what she wanted.
I can still remember the time I overheard her say, “Why bother working hard, when you can just show your tits?”
At first I was sure she had to be joking, but in time I learned that wasn’t the case. Every time we went out on Friday nights, she would always go home with someone new. The one person she had never been able to land however, was Devlin. Then again, nobody else had either, including me.
That was not for a lack of trying on Brianna’s part though. She flirted relentlessly with Devlin. And that alone was the reason why I hated her with a passion. Which was silly because it wasn’t like Devlin was mine or that she or anyone else even knew I had a crush on him.
So it wasn’t really fair that I held her flirting with him against her. Yet, logical or not, I still did. I couldn’t help myself. When I saw her push her big fake breasts out to make sure than Devlin and every other man standing in front of her looked at them, my blood boiled.
This particular night, Brianna was in rare form. I wasn’t sure if she was really drunk or just a great actress. As the night went on, she got louder and louder.
“Oh Devlin you are so funny. Oh Devlin you are just the best. Oh Devlin how do you not have a wife to take care of you yet?”
The more this went on, the more I drank and drank and drank.
“What’s with you tonight?” Sandy asked.
“I don’t know. I guess it’s just been a rough week.”
Sandy looked at me then followed my gaze to Devlin.
“Oh my God! How could you not tell me?”
“Tell you what?” I asked Sandy, confused by what she meant.
She leaned in so that nobody else could hear her. “That you are in love with Devlin Kent.”
“What? No. Who told you that? That’s ridiculous.”
I quickly looked around, making sure that nobody overheard her.
“I can’t believe you Elizabeth. Look at your face. It’s bright red. You have the hots for …”
I put my hand over her mouth so that she couldn’t finish.
“Please Sandy. You can’t tell anybody. I would just die if anyone knew.”
“How long has this been going on?”
“I don’t know, I guess awhile now,” I admitted begrudgingly.
“How long Elizabeth,” Sandy demanded to know.
I sighed. “Since the first day I met him.”
Sandy was ecstatic, jumping up and down like a kid with a new toy. I however wanted to lay my head down on the table, clothes my eyes and pretend this never happened.
“How could I not have seen it? How could this escaped my radar all of this time?” Sandy wondered out loud.
I wanted to crawl under the table and die. But instead I just had another shot or two, or three.
I found that the more I drank, the easier it was not to turn my head and watch what was going on at Devlin’s table. Instead I focused on the other men in the bar, who kept buying the girls at our table drinks.
Just as another round of shots were delivered to our table I felt a strong hand on my shoulder. Then warm breath in my ear.
“I think you’ve had enough tonight Mary Elizabeth.”
I looked up to see Devlin standing over me. But before I could respond, he grabbed my wrist, pulled me up from my chair.
“Get your things. It’s time to go,” he commanded and I obeyed.
I snagged my purse and did my best to keep up as he dragged me out the door of the bar.
“Where are we going?” I asked when we got outside.
“I’m taking you home. You’ve had far too much to drink tonight.”
“I’m fine Devlin. You don’t have to babysit me. You can go back in and do whatever it was you were doing with Brianna.”
He pushed my back against the passenger side door of his car. Then he leaned over me, with a hand on either side of me, effectively caging me in.
“Do you really think I want to spend another minute with Brianna Bristow?”
He towered over me and all I could do was look up at him, into his mesmerizing grey eyes. For just a moment I was sure he was going to lean down and kiss me. Instead he unlocked his door, put me in the seat, and even fastened my seatbelt before he climbed in the dr
iver’s side and started the car.
I wanted to ask where we were going but I was too stunned to speak. I was in the car with Devlin Kent and he almost kissed me. Maybe. Possibly. Probably.
I glanced down and noticed on the little clock in his dashboard that it was after ten. I don’t normally stay at the bar for more than an hour. How in the world did so much time get away from me?
We drove through the city streets and Devlin didn’t say a word. It was dark outside and his tented windows made it even harder to see, so I couldn’t really tell where it was we were headed. Did he know where I live or was he taking me to his place?
I couldn’t stand the silence anymore and finally I spoke up. “Where are you taking me?”
He didn’t answer, at least not at first.
“I’m taking you to my place so you can sleep this off.”
“I’m fine Devlin, really. You don’t have to take care of me.”
“Apparently I do. I watched exactly how much you had to drink tonight. What were you thinking? Any one of those men could have taken advantage of you.”
He was angry with me.
“Devlin I’m an adult. Old enough to drink and vote and even buy cigarettes if I was so inclined. I don’t need a babysitter.”
He didn’t respond. He just kept driving. But when I glanced over at him, I could see a muscle in his jaw tick.
It was like he was trying his best to maintain his calm with me. Was I really that out of control at the bar? I didn’t think so and I was nowhere near the level Brianna had been.
Okay it’s true I was drunk, more so than I had ever been in my life. But it wasn’t like I was dancing naked on the tables or anything. I was just sitting there laughing with my friends from work, letting a few guys flirt with us and buy us drinks. Was that really so bad?
Before I could debate the issue with him further, we pulled into a parking garage and into one of the available spaces. He got out of the car and went to open my door. I wasn’t moving though. I wanted to know what was going on.
“Devlin, this is ridiculous. Just take me home.”
Dark Romance Novel - Submission + Taken + 1 Mystery books Bundle Set (A Dark Romance Series Novel) Page 2
