“What about it?”
Her breath held a slight coffee and mint scent.
“How far up does it go?”
Her husky laughter wove around him, bringing him alive, making him feel a deeper emotion than only lust.
“Take a look and find out for yourself.”
Jack palmed her ass and lifted her instantly approving of the way she locked her legs around him. carrying her down the hall, he kicked the door closed behind him to one of the boardrooms. Placing her on the end of the table, he stepped back to flick on a light.
“I need to see this.”
“So long as you promise me one thing.”
The light spilled over her, wetting his appetite for her further. Her skin was makeup free and clear of blemishes.
“What’s that?”
She crooked her finger at him. “You’ll respect me in the morning.”
Jack grinned before he could catch himself. Removing his shirt, he nodded.
“Promise.”
* * *
Beep. Beep. Beep.
Jack fumbled for his alarm, giving up to yell, “I’m awake.” The annoying noise stopped.
Good morning, Jacques. It is five forty-seven am. Would you like me to open the shades?
The automated voice for his house was nearly cheerful. He flopped over and groaned. “No.”
How could he respect Neela when she was gone come the early light of morning? Before he even woke up she’d managed to slip away. He’d shoved back into his clothing and showed up for the party, later than intended but sated. She hadn’t been there at the party either.
It’s raining outside and your car will be waiting for you in thirty minutes.
Grumbling, he climbed out of his oversized bed. “Start my shower.”
Of course, the automated voice continued. Your coffee will be brewed by the time you are finished.
“Thank you.”
Water temperature perfect, he got cleaned up and took the time to jack off to the numerous memories he had of Neela’s touch. He never found her.
Three months. Three long months and he couldn’t get her out of his head.
Or my dreams.
Dried and dressed, he grabbed his coffee that had been streamed into his travel mug, then rode the elevator down from his penthouse to the first floor. Striding across the floor, each step making a sound from the heels of his shoes, he lifted his mug in acknowledgement of the man behind the front desk.
“Morning, Mr. Perrot.” The driver opened the door for him as he neared.
“Good morning, Paul.”
In the back, he stared at the schedule on his phone. Monday’s were always busy. He leaned back and went through some emails as he was driven through the streets as a light snow fell. Paul had classical on, keeping him mellow as they navigated the crazy morning traffic to get him to his destination.
Hours later, he pushed back from his desk and made his way to the door. Opening it, he froze at the hauntingly familiar sounds of a voice, no matter how he tried, he was unable to purge from his memory banks.
Neela.
Surely it can’t be. Not states away from where I met her. And enjoyed every inch of her.
Staring out, he didn’t see anyone other than his secretary but he could see the all to familiar sway of an ass heading away.
“Mr. Perrot,” his secretary began as he came out.
“I’ll be back.”
Hurrying down the hall, he reached the elevator bay just as the door were closing. He lunged and shoved his hand in there, halting the closure.
As they opened, he entered the car, pleased it was only the two of them in there and met her gaze.
“Good after—”
She clamped her mouth shut, eyes wide as she stared up at him. He understood he appeared imposing, he was supposed to.
He gave her a small grin unable to help himself, she put the cold heartless business man away in a tiny corner that had zero light. “Hello, Neela.”
“Shit, shit, shit.” Her words, not so much muttered while her gaze raked him up and down, full of blatant hunger and shock, as she swore.
“You snuck away.”
He had so many questions for her. Why she left without a word and why she was standing before him with her hands on the mail cart.
“What are you doing here?” She gestured behind him. “And on that floor?”
His grin wouldn’t leave his face. All this time, all those sleepless nights and hot and bothered dreams, now she was right here.
“Baby, this is my company.”
Those eyes of hers, big chocolate drops, grew wide once more.
“You? No way, you’re not Mr. Latner.”
“No baby, I’m Mr. Perrot. The other business partner.”
* * *
Neela needed to sit. Her legs shook so bad she wasn’t quite positive how long she could stay upright.
What level of hell had she crashed into?
Just my luck I end up shagging a boss of a company I work for.
“I don’t suppose you would be okay with forgetting this entire thing?”
He shook his head but remained silent that sexy smirk still there. Damn but she wanted to hurdle the cart in front of her and scale him like a damn tree and kiss him. So many sleepless nights and intense dreams about his body and touch on her.
That’s not even touching the way he calls me baby. Christ, I’m ready to come just from that alone. Either that or shove my hand down the front of my jeans and frig myself until I explode.
The night they’d fucked on the forty-fourth floor he’d been sexy in his casual attire. Now in this three-piece suit, suffice to say, she should just hand over her panties now for they were as useful as a pea shooter on an elephant.
The dark gray pinstripe suit she had no doubt cost more than what she made at both jobs combined. It had been made to fit him and him alone. The drape over broad shoulders, the way the pants hugged his lean hips.
He looked sexy, disgustingly arrogant, put together, and she desperately wanted to mess him up. Take that picture-perfect hair and tumble her fingers through it. Remove his tie and undo each pearl gray button to expose the broad expanse of his chest beneath.
Skim her tongue along the taut bronzed skin as his masculine scent filled her nose. He smelled of darkly sensual sandalwood and something she couldn’t name other than calling it Jack.
Here and now, within the confines of the elevator car his scent wove around her, tempting her. Teasing her. It wound around her with viperlike sinuosity and charm. Mesmerizing while it called to her on a visceral level.
The door opened, and he stepped aside, allowing her to step out into the basement of the building. Neela captured her lower lip in her mouth as she moved by him and proceeded on her way, all without looking back at him. It wouldn’t do for her to be caught lusting after the boss.
Not at all.
Surely she was safe down here why would the top dog hang out in the mailroom. She wanted to forget their night together, not that it wasn’t something she thought about all the time, but because it was getting in the way of her everyday life. She had to stop daydreaming about a man so unattainable to her it wasn’t worth her stopping to dream.
“I have my own plans,” she asserted as she waved at two of the others down there.
“What are you muttering about, Neela?” Paulson Torres asked her as she moved the cart beside him.
“Nothing worth repeating, promise. Just blubbering about my plans.”
“Where you get rich and take care of all of us?”
She laughed and curved her arm around him. “I told you, when I strike it rich, I will take care of you and your girls.”
The man was the sole provider for his twin nieces, Mikayla and MacKenzye. Their mother, his sister and her best friend, died a year ago, and he’d been struggling ever since. The four of them shared a place, it helped them both, and she doted on the girls. Her goddaughters.
They got back to work a
nd were listening to music and jamming when their boss stuck his head in the room.
“Fitzgerald!”
“Yes sir?” She placed a package on the cart to take back up.
“Boss wants to see you.”
She winked at Paulson. Turning to face Timothy Harden, she strode over to the tall, reed thin man that looked like the very definition of a ginger. Pale skin, freckles, and that beacon red head of hair.
“About?”
He chuckled and shook his head. “Not me. The big boss.”
It took her brain a moment to register who he spoke about. Big boss. Upstairs. The man she knew as Jack.
“Right now?”
Man, she deserved a drink for not having a high-pitched squeal with her question. And once I get off work, I’ll have one. Or five.
“That would be preferable. We don’t keep Mr. Perrot waiting.”
Fuck.
“Right.” She ran her hands down the front of her pants and tried to hide her gulp. “Back as soon as I can, assuming I’m not fired.”
Timothy shook his head. “You’ve not met him so why would he fire you? Did you do something horrible when you delivered his mail today?”
“Didn’t think so.” And I do know him, intimately, just strictly as Jack.
Timothy shooed her along. “Let’s not keep him waiting. I don’t want his secretary to call back down here.”
Because she wanted the dour faced woman to call the first time? Not likely. She held up her hands. “I’m going, I’m going.”
Braver on the outside than the inside, she remained composed until the doors on the elevator slid shut, closing her off from the ones watching her. The mailroom had a tight knit group so the fact the man who owned the company wanted to see her, spread like wildfire.
Alone, she sagged against the metal railing in the car and struggled to capture her breath. It hit her. Perhaps there was a camera in here and he was watching. Gritting her teeth, she stood up straight and forced a yawn, as if she didn’t have a care in the world.
Regardless of who he was, he wouldn’t see her sweat. At least not in this situation. She’d done plenty of sweating with him their night together.
Her nipples pebbled and her clit throbbed. She struggled not to squeeze her thighs together in an effort to ease the ache.
I don’t need to be aroused when I get up to see him. Unfortunately, she didn’t have any control over the state of her body at the knowledge she was getting closer to the man who’d catapulted her to a new plane of pleasure that night.
However, when the doors slid open on the top floor, from all outward appearances, she was the epitome of calm. She walked up to the desk, she’d just been to a bit earlier to drop off the mail and waited for the dour-faced woman to look at her.
It wasn’t that the secretary was mean, she just looked it, for whatever reason. Honestly, Neela liked her. Didn’t take a lot of gruff from anyone.
“He’s waiting for you. Go on in.”
If only that were true. “Thank you, Ms. Donna.”
Neela made her way up to the large dark door and knocked twice before pushing her way in. Her gaze cut directly to the humongous wood desk, dominating the room. Her mouth watered at the thought of being bent over it while he fucked her from behind, skidding her breasts over the polished wood. There was matching furniture, a small coffee maker, and a few other things but she had locked onto the man himself.
Jack stood by the windows, much as he had the night in Georgia when he fucked her senseless on the forty-fourth floor. This time, he had an arm braced up on the glass and one hand in his pocket.
“You wanted to see me, sir?” She waited by the door, leaving it propped open.
“Come in and shut the door.”
His deep voice did things to her that should be outlawed. She picked up on the slight accent, it had been more prevalent their shared night. He still hadn’t turned to face her, and that annoyed her for a number of reasons. However, she listened and quietly closed the door behind her.
At least she’d believed it had been quiet. The moment it clicked he turned, and she was burned by the heat in his gaze. If the door hadn’t been at her back, she very well may have stepped back, purely out of reflex. As it was, she held her ground.
“Why did you call me up here?”
“Come sit down, Ms. Fitzgerald.” He gestured to a chair across from that huge expanse of a desk. He moved forward and rested his large strong hands on the back of his dark brown executive leather chair.
She listened even as her gaze strayed to his fingers as they gripped the back of his chair. Her heart thundered harder within her chest. All she could see right now was the reflection of him gripping her hips in the window on that forty-fourth floor as he fucked her on that boardroom table. She exhaled slowly and perched on the edge of the seat.
Once she’d taken the chair, he moved to claim his own. She waited for him to say something. In her ear were the faint strands of her music pumped in from the lone earbud she wore.
Maybe I should have taken this out.
Silence stretched, but she forced herself to remain still and not fidget beneath that intense stare.
“Two things,” he rumbled going from his mouth straight to her clit.
She nipped the inside of her lower lip and prayed she didn’t leave a wet spot on the cushion of the chair.
“Which would be?” she prompted when he didn’t speak.
“Why did you leave me sleeping and what are you doing working in my mailroom?”
She blinked. “I left you sleeping because I had to leave and didn’t see why I should stay. I’m working in the mailroom because that’s where I was hired.”
He leaned forward and rested his hands on his desk top. She held his gaze, unwilling to show how unnerved he made her with that stare of his.
“Didn’t see why you should stay?”
“It was a quick fuck during a party. I didn’t think there was to be cuddling afterward.”
His firm lips twitched. “Baby, there wasn’t anything quick about what we did.”
Her core throbbed, and she swallowed. He spoke the truth, it hadn’t been quick. There wasn’t an inch of her he didn’t lick, nip, or explore and she could say the thing about her to him.
“Not that it’s relevant now, but thank you for pointing that out to me. Now, is there anything else? I have to get back to work.”
“Mailroom?”
“Nothing wrong with that. It’s honest work.”
“I want you up here with me. Be my personal assistant.”
She snorted. “No.” In the next second, she realized how rude that sounded and held up a hand by way of apology. “Let me rephrase that.” She cleared her throat. “Thank you for the offer but I will have to decline.”
He narrowed his sharp dark gaze. “You’re turning me down?”
Apparently not a lot of people did that. She made sure to keep her smirk contained.
“Yes.” She pushed to her feet. “I appreciate the offer. Excuse me, I have to get back to work.”
She left the office before she could change her mind and accept that position. With a smile for Ms. Donna, she prayed the elevator would close before he got out to where she was. She needed to get home and decompress all this information.
2
Jacques rubbed his temples and stared at the closed door, separating him from Neela. Christ, the second she stepped through the door, all he could think about was stripping her bare and having his way with her.
Had she just turned him down? Seriously, did she not understand what being his assistant would offer her?
“But she walked out. And I hadn’t even told her we were done.”
He couldn’t be mad at her though, her shock had to be as his was with the seeing one another again.
Pulling up his schedule, he skimmed it even as he continued attempting to wrap his mind around the fact she was in his building. He wanted her up here with him. I get what I want.
He shook his head and picked back up the phone, he called Donna to have her send for Neela’s immediate supervisor. Wanting him in his office within the hour.
While he waited for the man to arrive, he finished up some phone calls and sent out some emails.
“Mr. Perrot, Mr. Harden is here to see you.”
“Send him in.”
Donna opened the door and the tall man slipped by his secretary to enter his office. He fidgeted with his tie as he moved to the desk.
“You wanted to see me, sir?”
“Sit down, Mr. Harden.”
“Did something happen with Neela?”
Jacques drew back, eyebrow arched as he rested his hands on the blotter on the desk. “Why would you ask about that?”
“She had been called up here before me. I’m sure if there was a problem we can work it out. She’s a hard worker and I’m sure whatever the issue is can be taken care of. I’d love to keep her on my staff, so this is me sticking my neck out for one of my workers.”
“I admire your dedication to your employee, believe me, it’s nothing bad. I want to move her up here to work as my personal assistant.”
The man’s gaze narrowed before he composed himself. “You want her as your secretary?” He thumbed over his shoulder to where Donna sat beyond his door.
“I said personal assistant.”
“I can’t tell you how to promote throughout your company, Mr. Perrot, but I can’t promise she will take the job. I’m unsure as to why you are coming to me about her taking a position in the company.”
“Because you’re her supervisor. I don’t want to just take her from you without letting you know, so I’m providing you with your heads up.”
Timothy blinked and Jacques noticed the fatherly concern in the depths of his eyes. The man didn’t argue with him. “Thank you, sir.”
“I’ll let you tell her. I expect her here tomorrow morning at six.”
“Don’t you think you should offer the position and see if she wants it?”
“She wants it.” His tone smacked of arrogance as he leaned back in his chair.
Seduction in a Suit: An Office Romance Collection Page 122
