Teaching The Boss

by Mallory Crowe

  “April,” he whispered again.

  She picked up the purse she’d dropped and hit the button to open the doors. “You’ve upset me so many times in the past six years, Sam.” The doors slid apart and she looked over her shoulder at him, not even caring about the streaks of tears that streamed down her cheeks. “But I’ve never hated you like I do right now. Don’t call me. Don’t email me. I just want you out of my life.”

  He opened his mouth to say something, but April was gone before any sound emerged.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  April stumbled out of bed and blinked at the bright light that streamed through the windows. What time was it? Didn’t matter. She was unemployed now.

  Well, it was Saturday, so it didn’t matter anyway, but her mind was still stuck on the idea of being unemployed. She hadn’t been on the job hunt in ages. Interviewing trends had probably changed a lot in the last decade.

  Of course, by now she’d replayed the previous night in her mind thousands of times. In hindsight, she could’ve reacted better. If she’d given him a chance to fire her, she might’ve actually gotten severance pay.

  He hadn’t actually fired her. But he told Oksana he would. Well, he didn’t say he wasn’t going to fire her. How on earth had Oksana built up so much hatred toward April in five days?

  The sudden buzzing of her intercom pulled her from her thoughts. Was that Sam? Her heart leapt at the thought of him begging for forgiveness. Offering her a raise and extra perks if she would come back.

  As much as she liked the idea of Sam groveling at her feet, she sobered as she remembered the still fresh wound of his betrayal. Even if he offered her a way to stay in the city she loved and work at a company she’d put so much time into, how could she forgive him that quickly?

  It might not even be Sam at the door. Knowing her luck at the moment, it was some delivery or salesperson who hit every button just to get inside.

  April smacked her hand over her intercom speaker button. “What?” she asked, her tone as unenthusiastic as she felt.

  “Ms. Morgan?”

  April’s heart sunk. The voice was deep and male, but definitely not Sam. “This is her.”

  “I was hoping we could have a word. If you prefer, we can go out to lunch.”

  April cast a dubious glance at the window. Could it really be lunchtime already? No matter what time it was, her eyes were red from crying and her face was smeared with yesterday’s makeup. It would take her at least a half hour to get presentable. “Who is this?”

  “My name is Donald Hunt.”

  A few long seconds of silence ticked by as April stared in horror at the cream-colored intercom. “The Donald Hunt?”

  “Ms. Morgan, I don’t want to sound rude, but I’d prefer to finish this conversation face to face. Would you mind inviting me up?”

  Donald Hunt was asking to come up to her apartment? Cleanliness wise, the studio was okay, but she couldn’t possibly let one of the richest men in New York into her five-hundred-square-foot home. His bathroom was probably bigger than her entire place. “Umm, I’m not really up for company.” Did she really just turn Donald Hunt away?

  “I assure you I won’t pass any judgment. I do have some pressing matters I’d like to discuss.”

  If he insisted, who was she to say no? Sam would be furious when he found out about this, but that would be his problem. Actually, he would probably be interested in what his father was doing at her apartment and then get furious.

  And there she went again, basing her decisions off of what Sam would want. That was old April. This was new, reckless April. “Come on up.” She hit the button to unlock the front door.

  She was on the sixth floor and at the end of the hall, so if she was lucky, she’d have two to three minutes before he was at her unit. Running past the kitchen area, April opened the one door in the apartment to get into her bathroom. She took a good ten seconds to take in her frazzled appearance and make a game plan. She flipped on the hot water dial and grabbed a brush. Her dark hair was a frizzy mess, but it was quick enough to run a brush through her naturally straight, chestnut locks and pull it back into a tight ponytail.

  By now the water had gone from frigid to lukewarm, and she ran her washcloth under the stream before she wiped down her face. Once the dark smudges under her eyes were gone, she managed to appear semi human. There was actually a minute amount of eyeliner still around her eyes, which made the dark brown of her eyes seem even darker.

  She wished she had time to put some concealer over the brown circles under her eyes that managed to look even worse than normal thanks to the crying, but she needed to pick her battles.

  She’d probably already used up her two minutes, but she hadn’t heard a knock yet. She jogged out of the bathroom, slipping off her sleeping shorts as she moved. By the time she reached her dresser, the shorts were off and she slipped on a pair of jeans. She shoved the discarded shorts into the jean drawer and slipped her shirt off.

  A rapping sound came from the front of the apartment, but she sure as hell wasn’t opening the door topless. After throwing on a bra and black t-shirt, she slammed her drawers closed and ran to the door.

  Not being a complete idiot, she leaned in and peered through the peephole. Her breath caught in her throat. Sure enough, there was Donald Hunt in her hallway. Real estate mogul, businessman extraordinaire. The only thing he wasn’t perfect at was being a dad. At least according to Sam.

  And now he stood outside her door and waited to talk to her. She twisted the knob and looked right into Sam’s blue eyes. The shock of the similarity between father and son was striking. Though Donald’s neatly trimmed white beard, the same snow white as the hair on his head, covered his wrinkled face, she could tell he had the same strong cheekbones and jaw that she was so used to seeing on Sam.

  “Hi, Mr. Hunt. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She held a hand out, which he met with a firm shake.

  “No need for the pleasantries, Ms. Morgan. I’m fully aware that I’m intruding on your Saturday. Feel free to call me Donald.”

  “And you can call me April. Come on in.” She backed away to give him room.

  He moved past her as his eyes roamed over her living space.

  “It isn’t much, but it has everything I need,” she murmured, unable to stop her self-consciousness from taking over.

  “Nonsense, April. This is a tough city and you’re already doing much better than so many others.”

  He turned back to her, and April stood straighter.

  “I know about you,” he said.

  “Know about me? What does that mean?”

  “It’s a crazy world we live in, these days. Knowledge is power. For instance, I know that you know who your father is, but never visit him. You were born in Kentucky, but your mother moved to New Jersey when she had financial troubles. There, you lived together with your aunt as your mother’s drug addiction got worse, until your aunt kicked her out. When you were sixteen, your aunt gained full custody of you and, even though you had good grades, you didn’t have the money for anything more than community college.”

  April held up a hand. “Please stop. I’m suitably creeped out.”

  “I’m sorry. That wasn’t my intention,” he said. “You’re majoring in business management?”

  “Now you’re just asking questions you already know the answer to.” She was about to find out whether he liked sass as much as his son.

  And just like Sam, he simply tilted his head a fraction. A tiny acknowledgment of her point. Good grief, the similarities between the two were unbelievable.

  “It’s such a vague degree. So many directions you can take with it. Do you really think you can handle the business world?”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. Now that she realized how similar he was to his son, she knew she couldn’t show any sign of weakness. “I’ve done okay so far.”

  “As secretary to a playboy running a company no one has ever heard of. What kind of job do you think tha
t will get you?”

  April clenched her jaw. She wanted to give a witty retort, but she’d been asking herself that same question all night.

  “I’m sure you’ll find something. Your grades are good and you have a decent story behind you. But this is an expensive city. How much do you think an entry-level management position pays? Probably not enough to afford this tiny apartment. And how much smaller do you really think you can go?”

  “I’m assuming you didn’t come here with the sole purpose of making me feel like crap. Please either get to the point or get out.”

  “My point is that your resume isn’t that impressive. HuntCorp isn’t public yet and not enough people know what it is. No one will realize the particular demands of working with my son and I’m sure none of them can appreciate how much time and energy you devoted to Samuel. I believe that kind of devotion needs to be rewarded.”

  “You’re offering me a job?” Good grief. If Sam ever found out about this, he would lose his shit. No! She had to stop thinking about Sam’s reaction. Donald offered her the job.

  “I’m here to present you a career.” He leaned in closer. “Not as a secretary, admin assistant, or whatever the hell they’re calling it these days. You’ll start out small, mostly busy work. Probably the same thing you were doing at HuntCorp. But as you get a better feel for how I operate, you can go whichever direction you want to. Accounting, sales, finance. This is exactly what you deserve and what no one else can offer you but me. I’ll pay you double what you’d get anywhere else.”

  April’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not getting involved in your corporate espionage. The fact you’re here guarantees that you have eyes and ears in HuntCorp. I’m no spy.”

  He let out a laugh. “No spying necessary. Legitimate work. It might not always be easy, but it will be rewarding and will be a great foundation to build a career on.”

  “It almost sounds too good to be true.” She would be able to stay in the city, finish school and be on a better career path than before. There had to be a catch.

  “Does it? If Sam was impressed by you, that’s saying something. If he is foolish enough to let you go, I’m going to swipe you up before he realizes his mistake.”

  April took a step away from Donald. “I don’t want to be a part of your feud. I don’t know why you haven’t talked to each other in years and he never mentioned it. I’m not some tug-of-war toy.”

  “Don’t overthink this,” he said in a soft voice. “I’m being completely upfront right now. Everything is on the table. You’re unemployed. You have a good head for people and business. I want that kind of mind making my company better. Yes or no?”

  “I have to answer right now?” Her eyes widened at the thought of having to choose right that second.

  “I’ll give you until five tonight.” Donald removed his wallet from his back pocket and fished out a business card. “My mobile number is here.” He handed her the simple white card. “I’m sure you understand that number is private.”

  April fingered the tiny piece of paper. She held Donald Hunt’s cell phone number in her hand. Good grief. “I can be discreet.”

  He nodded and moved toward the door.

  Suddenly remembering her manners, Ashepril followed him and raced to open the door for him. “It was an honor to meet you, sir.”

  Donald crossed into the hallway. “It was a pleasure, April Morgan. I’m eager to hear from you.”

  The corner of her mouth ticked up. “You sound as self-assured as Sam.”

  He considered her a moment. A slow grin formed on his face. “That makes me happy to hear. I would love to have you on my team.”

  From the second April glimpsed the raw appreciation he had for her every mention of his son, her mind was made up. Her time with Hunt Jr. was over. It was time to move up in the world.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Sam dug through the pile of pink message slips on his desk. Where the hell did all these come from? There was one from ten thirty in the morning. He ripped the phone off the hook and hit one of the speed dial buttons. “Eric, why is there a message here from five hours ago that I didn’t know about?”

  “Umm, well, sir, you were busy all morning and I only, um, just had a chance to drop it off.”

  Sam rolled his eyes. April could strut into his office in the midst of even the most intense discussions and he wouldn’t notice until he went to take another sip of coffee to find his glass had magically been refilled. Eric couldn’t even sneak in to hand him a damn phone message?

  “Try to be quicker next time. This could be important.”

  “Umm, yes, sir. No problem, sir.”

  He dropped the phone into place while he shook his head. After a three-week search, Eric had really seemed as if he’d be perfect. Finance major like April, so he could do more than pour coffee. He came from a good business family, so he should’ve been used to the high pressures of being at the beck and call of a CEO.

  Sam’s own father had sure as hell put him through the ringer. As a teen, he spent more time at the office or going to meetings with his dad than sneaking out to party with friends.

  Eric had been with HuntCorp for a full week, and he hadn’t managed to fit in any better with Sam or the other staff. If anything, his stutter got worse.

  He picked up his phone and scrolled through his contacts list until he found the number for April’s cell. It had been two weeks since he’d tried to call her last. She’d dropped off the face of the planet after that night. None of his calls were ever answered or returned. She didn’t respond to any of his emails. At one point, he’d borrowed a cab driver’s cell to verify it wasn’t just HuntCorp numbers she was avoiding.

  He’d told his driver to take the hour-long detour to her apartment a few times since their blowout but had never been able to actually walk to the door.

  It somehow seemed a bit too stalkerish. Too unprofessional.

  Hell, the kiss had already overstepped all lines of propriety. He rubbed a hand over his eyes and replayed the scene in the elevator. Her hands pulling him closer. His fingers riding along the delicate skin of her thighs. He tried like hell to regret it, but all he could think about was getting the chance to do it again.

  She obviously had other ideas. But it wasn’t as if she pushed him away! He’d been so desperate to get her to listen to him, to believe him when he said he didn’t want to get rid of her. To understand that he cared too much about her for her to work so closely with him.

  The kiss was purely instinctive. A way to get her to pay attention to him and stop yelling. He never expected it to explode like it did. Her to pull him closer and him to follow her lead, as if he were back to being a fifteen-year-old virgin.

  His sweet, utterly professional admin had burned beneath his hands, had put more passion into that kiss than he could’ve anticipated possible. How had he been so close to her for six years and never imagined it could be like that between them?

  Sure, she was an attractive woman, but he never thought that them being together could blow his mind. He’d been with women who made millions off their appearances but had never felt the driving need to be with someone like he had for those few short minutes with April.

  The door to his office creaked open as the Bs walked in. He put a smile on his face, not letting his confusion show. As far as he knew, he wasn’t meeting with the Bs until Thursday. “Afternoon, Jackson. Matthew.”

  Jackson Booth and Matthew Burkey were essential to getting HuntCorp up and running, but Sam was counting down the days until he was rid of their oversight. While Sam’s trust fund from his grandparents was sizeable, it wasn’t enough to get a corporation in the size and scope he’d always envisioned up and running. So he’d recruited the Bs. Both rich, both would rather spend their time on a golf course instead of behind a desk. He’d sold them each a thirty-percent stake in the company in return for a fortune in capital. He’d been slowly saving up enough to pay them back plus interest and was finally seeing a light at the end of th
e tunnel.

  “Hello, Hunt,” said Jackson. “Hope you weren’t too busy.”

  Sam shook his head and gestured for them to sit.

  Matthew waved his arms in declining motion. “Oh no. We’re just dropping by. We were going to call, but decided to just take a cab over. We were uptown anyway. We heard the auditors were finally gone.”

  Ah. Good news at least. “Yeah. They packed up last Thursday. We should have the financials and reports for the SEC by next week.”

  Both men nodded in unison. Their tendency to do everything as a pair, one of the things that attracted him to them as investors in the first place, was why he always called them the Bs. April had laughed for five minutes straight when he told her his internal nickname for them. It had been their little inside joke since then. When he told Eric, the assistant merely nodded and mumbled a “good idea, sir.”

  “We also wanted to start talking about the sale,” said Jackson.

  There it was. The real reason for the visit. “Ask away.”

  “We were just hoping you could send over a draft of the paperwork to our lawyer. We all know how long these things can take, so we figured it would be best to get a head start,” said Matthew.

  Ah, music to his years. He was more than happy to get them whatever they needed to have the sale commence as quickly as possible. “I think that’s a great idea. Are you still with Stewart?”

  Both nodded at once, but Jackson spoke. “Yep. Glad we’re on the same page. We’ll let you—”

  The door creaked open once again. All three men turned to see the sudden intruder.

  And there was Eric, sticking a flustered head in. “Um, sir, I know you said to interrupt you for important messages.”