When he pulled back, she closed her eyes and a soft smile lit up her face. “Thank god, I’m not the only one of us in love.”
“I fell way before you did.” He dipped her like the heroine in a movie. “But I’m afraid I have to insist on business casual at the office.”
Her laughter was immediate, “Only if I can break the rules.”
“Baby, that’s the whole reason we’ll have them.”
* * *
The End
Sneak Peak
Check out the first book in the Ink & Brazen women series…
* * *
SKIN DEEP
She's looking for Mr. Right Now.
He's planning on forever.
Gigi Duval doesn’t do relationships, especially with her hear and career on the line. She values two things—her image and a good time in the bedroom. Watching men lie and cheat her whole life hardened her against “happily ever after”. When she interviews with Roman Bishop, the sexy co-owner of Ink Spinners Tattoo, she begins to wonder if he might be more than just a casual fling. Only one thing is certain: Roman is off limits. Gigi can't possibly add her best friend's brother to her trusty little pink book. Or can she?
About the Author
CASSIE LEIGH writes contemporary and paranormal romance that’s more than skin deep. Before she could write, she dreamed up stories with recorded conversations for her dolls on a Fisher-Price cassette player. Now with the help of her husband, she carves out time to write while raising five children, working full time and obsessing over her laundry list of eccentric passions including MMA fighting and the vintage pinup lifestyle. Every new obsession seems to find its way into her romance world!
Want more? You can connect with Cassie Leigh online.
https://www.cassieleighauthor.com
To Have and to Serve
Leona Bushman
Leona Bushman
Copyright 2018
To Have and To Serve
To my Muse,
You have made all this possible with your continued inspiration.
1
I stopped and chatted with the division’s secretary, Tina Larson. Mostly, she was a personal admin to the boss, Nicholas Smith, but she doubled as a backup for the rest of us. I called her the Super Secretary. “Are we out of those pens he favors?” I asked her while sliding my rump on the clean spot on her desk.
I enjoyed my time with her. We had much in common and sometimes went with the group for after work drinks. Both of us had turned down many an office romance, though her reason was her husband. Mine…well, mine was my hot boss that made every other male pale in comparison.
“They’re on order. Amazon will have them here tomorrow. He took the last of them this morning. Nice call on that, by the way. Turns out that Ernie in IT was taking gobs of pens home, making me think they were the popular choice. I’ve limited his access to the office supplies now, by the way. I think he was supplying a whole school with paper and pens by the way they disappeared.”
Her and I shared a laugh and shook our heads. Fred in Accounting turned out to have a bad habit of taking too much ink than his department should possibly need. I’d put a bug in his ear at one of our board meetings to run a check on the printers because they were going through too much ink. Turned out, Fred had been taking it home. Nicholas didn’t mind a bit of supplies heading home, but not to the tune of a hundred dollars a week or more for one employee.
“How’s Jake?” Her new husband, a Stater based in Lewis County, just moved to night shift.
“He’ll be happier once this shift is cycled on. He’s not a night person. Plus, it means less sex.” She waggled her eyebrows, and I laughed.
“Hey, have you heard anything on those Rooker files? Kim was supposed to run down a few things I found when doing a spot check.”
Part of my job, besides taking care of my own clients, was checking our files to make sure we’d not missed anything. Smith’s Enterprises held so many interests, we could be spot checked by the state at any time, especially since some of the accounts we had were government. The Real Estate Division gave me the most hassle with missing signatures or initials.
“She hasn’t brought it back since she checked it out. I’ll email her about it, so we have the paper trail intact.”
I nodded at Tina. “Thanks. Mr. Smith is lucky to have you. If I ever start my own business, I will be wooing you away.”
Tina laughed good naturedly. “I doubt it will work. Mr. Smith has a standing offer of ten percent above what anyone ever offers me.”
“Well, damn. I guess I’ll have to find my own secretary.” I sighed dramatically and stood up. “Talk to you later, Tina.”
I should have known he’d have her locked down. She really was the best. Trustworthy to boot, as far as I could tell.
I moved down the hall in my heels and business skirt and blouse. I caught a few discreet looks, but never from the person I wanted it from the most—Mr. Smith.
Inwardly, I allowed a wistful sigh as I thought of his chiseled cheek bones, blue eyes that I had to work not to stare into dreamily, and a physique that belonged on the cover of GQ. An Army man, he walked with power and purpose everywhere he went. He’d inherited the business from his dad when he retired, and now, ran it with a tight fist. I’d seen him fire a few people over incompetence since I started. He paid well, but demanded you did your job.
I sat back down to my desk for only about twenty minutes when I smelled smoke. What the hell? I stared to where I smelled it the strongest. Smoke started billowing out of the breakroom a half second before the alarm shrilled through the halls. The number of kitchen fires I’d had while learning to cook prepared me to not panic. I calmly stood up and headed to the room with the smoke to make sure it was empty of people. Thick black haze oozed out and entered the main room, though staying toward the ceiling at the moment. Screaming came from all around me, but mostly in the direction of the smoke. I moved faster against the tide rushing to the stairs.
Becca knelt down coughing uncontrollably near the doorway. I took a deep breath and dashed in to grab her. As I clutched her arm and started pulling, I heard Nicholas’ voice order the screaming to stop. Then he rushed past me, ordering, “Get to safety!” I turned to see what he was doing and saw that he had the fire extinguisher and was spraying the area down. I hurried Becca to the stairwell and handed her off to Aaron, who had calmly waited for me when he saw whom I had with me.
I ran back to the breakroom, ordering people out as I went. “Holy hell! Everyone out. This is not a drill.” People milled in groups, dazed expressions on their faces as if lost, and many started coughing. My own chest tightened up. I grabbed an elderly lady, Mrs. Peterson, who appeared confused, and headed toward the stairwell again. This time, I’d be going down.
Nicholas came out of the breakroom before I’d gone far, still holding the extinguisher and bellowed what I’d just said. “Everyone out!”
The milling masses stormed the door leading to the stairs, nearly trampling myself and Mrs. Peterson. I protected her with my body, then moved to help her down the stairs. We were only half way down when Nicholas caught up with us. After giving me a look I took to be gratefulness, he took the other arm, and we were able to make better time the rest of the way down.
Firemen were pulling hoses and attaching them to the pumper truck by the time we made it down. Nicholas, his face covered in soot, sent everyone home. Some people had their cars in the garage parking, but that had a ground entrance, so they just had to walk around the block. A fireman came over to me, helmet visor raised, rain pelting off him. He asked if I needed any oxygen, but I shook my head no. By this point, the air and smell of petrichor had eased the small bit of pain I’d had in my chest.
I stood next to Nicholas who stared up at his building. A strong part of me wanted to grab his hand in comfort, but regardless of my dreams and fantasies, that is not where our relationship stood. Though we’d had a few after work drinks and he’d been flirty,
we’d always gone in groups with others from work. I sighed aloud. “What the hell happened in the breakroom?” I asked.
“I won’t know for sure, but from what I saw, someone had scorched something in the garbage. I will have to see if I can get ahold of the security tapes to see for sure.” His voice, normally calm and reassuring with a bite of boss in command, now spoke in frustrated tones of worry. He turned toward me, and I caught something raw and needy in his gaze as he stared at me.
“Someone threw something hot and burning in the garbage,” I repeated incredulously. What, do we work with a bunch of teenagers? I held my tongue, though, as he clenched his jaw tight enough to break.
“It appears so,” he replied then went silent.
We stood together like that until the firemen cleared us to go in. We went up the stairs, him first, affording me a nice view of his tailored ass. I dropped my gaze when I realized I ogled his ass. Now who’s the teen?
The breakroom was a loss, probably totaled from the water and smoke damage, with some water damage to the floor below, too, which he also owned. The smell of smoke permeated everything.
“We’ll have to work out of the Seattle satellite office,” he said. “Can you ask Tina to email everyone. I’ll get a cleanup crew in here right away, but it’ll take time.” He grabbed the back of his neck and stretched.
“I will,” I said, trying to cover how my voice broke. Now was not the time to be lusting after my employer, but my breasts disagreed. So did my hands. I wanted to run down that strong chest, undo a few buttons, run my fingers… I shook my head out and let out my breath in a controlled manner. Damn. Even with smoke and soot covering his face and clothes and exhaustion marring his features, he exuded power and strength. His stretch ended and he took a step toward me and lifted his hand to my face, but then he dropped it.
I nearly offered him a kiss. Or at least a hug. But the last thing he needed right now was an employee getting personal when he had all this to deal with. Plus, I really liked my job and didn’t want to risk making things uncomfortable for him or myself.
So, I put on my best friendship smile, tucked away my heart, and dug in to help him with some preliminary cleaning, making sure there were no proprietary files out in damaged areas. It took us a few hours. A couple of times, he came behind me to reach over me. I held perfectly still, trying to decide if he was hitting on me or just comfortable. Also, to control that libido of mine. I started to tire, and my stomach rumbled. We ordered in pizza.
We smiled and laughed, and I fell in love a little more, watching this man take command of a bad situation and move on. His natural bossy flare, always tempered with respect, came out even more as we finished for the evening. I’d long since kicked off my heels and put on my walking shoes that I kept in my desk. He said a few flirty remarks, and it hit me how often he did that. And how often he didn’t do that to the other women in the office. The relief washed through me. I’d been waiting for some overt sign and missed the easy ones, and perhaps he just wasn’t a douchebag and didn’t want to pressure me as my boss.
When he walked me to the car that night, he took my hand, and I felt a new kinship with him.
I kept my lustful thoughts well buried as we talked, but when I went home, I let them loose in the shower. No other man I’d ever met made me want to explore the sub side of my nature, one I kept hidden. He did. I wanted to serve him in bed much as I did in the office. I’d not respected or believed in the moral strength of a man before him. Now, I devoured BDSM books to learn as much as I could and fuel my fantasies. What I wouldn’t give to make those fantasies real.
2
We worked at the satellite office for a week. That was all he gave the contractors, and they managed to kick it in and get it done. I marveled at his ability to push even insurance companies to cut through the muck. Just more proof he’d be a good Dom. He knew when to push and how to do it.
As I worked through a difficult part of a contract negotiations, I checked to make sure everything was exacting in every way. Though I’d had the space, I hadn’t had my own computer with its presets and favorites, and everything took longer.
It set me behind. Weeks later, in my own office, and I’d almost caught up. Almost.
The shrill alarm screeched through the building. My head screamed out in denial of the sound. Another drill. This had become tedious. Three shriek fests in the past month. In my eyes, this played a little like shutting the barn door after the horses escaped, but I just rolled my eyes. After the very real small fire had scared everyone and caused a trample for the door, my boss had instigated weekly practice runs until everyone reacted to his satisfaction.
A former Army man, I supposed it excused his incessant drilling, but it wreaked havoc on my work availability and concentration. This time, I kept plowing through my project, though it was hard to concentrate with the noise burrowing its way into my head. I wanted to smash things, starting with the damn alarm system.
“Fiona.” The way he said my name… His voice traveled through me like caramel through a candy bar. I shivered in delight and hoped he didn’t notice. It had been harder to maintain my façade of late.
“Nicholas.”
Part smart ass, yep, that about summed me up.
“Do you not hear the alarm?”
“I heard it loud and clear. However, I am not one of the people who freaked out during that small fire in the breakroom microwave. I don’t need the practice.”
“You don’t need the practice.” He repeated me deadpan.
I glanced over at him, his tone having an undercurrent I wasn’t sure about. “No, but I do need to get these done and turned in before I miss a deadline. The fire and working away from the office put me behind on all the contract work.” My client was not exactly known for their patience…any more than myself. It was why we’d clicked so well. I didn’t plan on letting this obsession with punishing us for a few people’s idiocy to overtake my work, especially since I’d proven myself during our little fiasco.
He stalked over to me and put his face in mine. “I say we drill until the whole team moves without panic.”
“And I say you cry wolf too many times, and no one will respond in the case of a real fire,” I replied quietly. I didn’t want to fight, and I understood his reasoning. However, I’d had enough of lost time. “Listen, I’m not trying to deny your authority. I just have to get these done.” With his blue eyes and strong cheekbones, not to mention lips that I wanted to kiss like every time he spoke… I tried to breathe. His face that close to mine had my libido revving up even when annoyed with him, and it took every ounce of my self-control not to move those precious inches closer and taste those lips. His natural body heat washed over me, and my nipples hardened.
His eyes flared and just that quickly, he stepped back. I took a deep breath. God, I hated when I came that close to losing myself into my lust for my boss. Since the day of the fire when we’d left holding hands, there’d only been mild flirting from him. Probably back in boss mode too much. Or maybe I’d been too busy to notice? I just wanted him to slam me up against the wall and have his way with me, but since he was the boss, it wasn’t likely to happen.
“What if I fired you?”
My heart skipped in fear I’d spoken my previous thoughts aloud. “E-excuse me?” Was he asking her out? No, wait, he couldn’t read minds. Right?
“You’re not participating in the drill.”
Oh, right. The drill. Damn, but he messed with my concentration when he stood so close. I tried to pay attention to his words instead of my libido.
“What sort of punishment should I devise?”
My face flamed in both embarrassment and thrill. I hoped he didn’t notice, but God help me, I could think of plenty of ways for him to punish me. “I see. Fine, I’ll go out. However, by the time we are let back in, I will need to leave. You can explain to the customer why it’s not ready in time.”
As it was not a real fire and I was already behind, I walked
smartly over to the elevators, frustrated and turned on at the same time. I loved that he didn’t let me walk all over him and pushed for what he wanted as boss.
Nicholas followed me and stood by as we waited for the doors to open. His stance reminded me of military stance, so rigid and straight in bearing. Always, he appeared as if he would be ready at a moment’s notice to attack or defend. Part of his attraction for me.
The strong shoulders emphasized his strength, which he tried to hide with fancy suits and a boardroom demeanor set to make you feel as if you had a say. To be fair, he did listen to other people’s ideas. However, anyone with an ounce of business acumen could read the power and alpha male under it all. I dearly loved alpha males who didn’t lord it over everyone else, and who weren’t afraid to listen to other’s opinions. I’d quit wondering why I was so turned on by him after the first employee meeting.
Lost in my musings, I’d nearly forgotten my pique.
“Too bad you didn’t choose to have me punish you,” he said in a husky voice that had me speechless.
I turned my attention back to the elevator. At the ping, the double doors gave way, and I stepped in, Nicholas right behind me. I groaned in my head. Fuck. I wanted him behind me. Slapping my ass, punishing me, his cock deep inside and…
My lungs began to feel tight, and my breath came out in short pants. He pressed the button for the lower floor, and I leaned myself back against the coolness of the metal walls, using the cool rail to hold myself up, closing my eyes. Damn it. I did not need this right now. A lot harder to hide my feeling with us being the only ones in the tight space. I nearly groaned out loud. Everything soared right to dirty when in his presence. And what the fuck did he mean by punishment? Did he want to fire me?
Seduction in a Suit: An Office Romance Collection Page 91
