The Island

by Alice Ward

  “Yes, I have it, sir. Is there anything you’d like me to do for you?” She licked her lips. “To make up for my mistake.”

  Shaking my head, I went into my office, ignoring yet another come on. “Just personally make sure Miss Baxter is dressed appropriately for tonight’s event, and have the clothes delivered to her apartment. Call her up here for measurements pronto.”

  When I got to my desk and opened my computer, a message from one of our top clients sent my good mood sailing out the door. His top stocks had dropped, and he wanted to know why. Now.

  That was the hardest part of the job, and only our top clients would have the balls to ask me directly. I had no idea what to tell the man without some extensive research, but he’d expect some kind of answer from me about it, and soon.

  But the old man would have to wait until I got the guy who was sleeping under the same roof as my intern out of her apartment. Calling Mrs. Peterson, I got right to the heart of the matter. “I want Miss Baxter’s roommate sent to another apartment.”

  “Oh, Mr. Reed, let me see.” I heard the shuffling of paper, tapping away at a keyboard, all of it making me more and more aggravated. “I’ll have to get a set of bunk beds set up in another apartment. It’ll be Friday before I can get that done.”

  “That’s not soon enough.” I drummed my fingers on my desk. “He can sleep on a sofa until the beds can be taken care of. Make sure Jeff is relocated right after work today. I don’t want Miss Baxter in the same apartment as a man.”

  “Sir, they have separate rooms. I assure you—”

  I wasn’t about to let her assure me of shit. “You have your orders. I’ll be at her apartment this evening. If I see him or his things there, I won’t be happy.”

  “Yes, sir. I’ll deal with it.”

  As I hung up the phone, another message popped onto the computer screen from the same old cantankerous man. Cursing, I sent him an I’ll get back to you message. It was the best I could do.

  His response was quick as he pointed out the millions of dollars that had been lost that day, and he wanted answers, or he wanted to sell the stock. I reiterated what I’d sent him and added that selling wasn’t recommended. He should sit tight.

  My shoulders began to ache with tension. I got up to stretch and made an attempt to alleviate some of it. Nothing was working, as every muscle along my spine just got tighter. I was about to call in the company massage therapist when I remembered that I’d ordered my intern to be measured for tonight’s apparel right outside my door.

  Walking out to the reception area, I found Lola putting away her tape measure as my target walked toward the elevator. “Hey, Kendra, can you come here and help me out for a few minutes?”

  She stopped and turned around as Lola said, “I can help you, Mr. Reed. Miss Baxter has a lot of work to get to.”

  “Her work is whatever I say it is, and if I remember correctly, you have a great deal to do yourself preparing Miss Baxter for the ballet.” I crooked my finger at Kendra. “Come on.”

  The women exchanged glances as they both followed my orders. I wasn’t happy about the secret message the look conveyed. Had the two of them been talking? Had Lola said some things she shouldn’t have? Like I was a womanizer and that Kendra should watch out for me?

  My back and shoulders were nothing but knots as I grew more and more irritated. I walked back into my office, taking off my jacket and tie before tossing them on top of my desk.

  Kendra walked in behind me, closing the door. “What did you need me to do, sir?”

  “I need you to work out some knots.” I pulled my shirt off and noticed how her jaw dropped before she quickly snapped it back into place.

  “Me?”

  I took a seat in the chair opposite of my desk. The back was lower, and she’d have better access to my shoulders. “Yes, you. This is part of the ‘all other duties as assigned.’ It’s a common courtesy around here.”

  Moving hesitantly, she was making me feel odd, and I hated it. “I’m not good at massages. Maybe you should ask Lola.”

  “If you will recall, I just sent her to buy you some clothes for tonight.” I realized I was speaking to her through gritted teeth and unclenched my jaw. Reaching out to her as she stood several feet away from me, seemingly too afraid to move closer, I managed to get ahold of her hand. It was cold to the touch, proving she was afraid of me. A thing I didn’t want at all. “Kendra, I’d do the same for you.”

  She nodded and gulped. It was ridiculous how she was reacting to such a small thing. I pulled her closer until she was at my back. Her fingers barely moved over my skin, shooting a beam of fire straight to my cock. “Like this?”

  “Can you use a little more pressure? Those muscles are making my life hell.” I leaned forward more, mostly to hide my obvious reaction to her touch.

  Her hands moved over my shoulders, caressing me more than anything else. Not like a sensual caress, either. More like she didn’t want to touch me at all, which made absolutely no sense. I wasn’t repulsive, no other woman had seemed to think so. Yet, here she was, acting as if I was some nasty vermin she was being asked to pet.

  Barely digging in, she made little grunting noises that sounded as if she was trying to actually perform a true massage. A thing she wasn’t doing at all. I was rapidly becoming even more tense rather than turned on. “Are you feeling any better? Can I stop now?”

  “You haven’t even started. You’re being silly. Can you run your fists down both sides of my spine? I hold a ton of tension in those areas.”

  Her knuckles moved down my back, but she didn’t put any weight behind it. “Like this?”

  I sighed and leaned forward more, opening up my back for her further. “Not exactly. Really get in there, please. If you press hard enough, you’ll feel the knots. When you find a knot, grind your fist into it, breaking it up. I can see I’ll need to schedule you an appointment with our massage therapist so you can learn the technique.”

  “I’m trying.” She made a huffing sound as she punched me in the back.

  “Shit! Don’t punch, knead the muscles.” I glanced back at her. “Do you want me to do you and show you what I want?”

  “No!” she yelped, her eyes growing wide.

  It made me smile. I knew I’d put her in an awkward position, but she’d just have to learn how to deal, the way my last intern had. “Well, if you want me to, I will. I’m not like some men who are one-sided with their favors. Since this is your first day, I bet you’re tense too. I can rub your shoulders for you. Run my hands down your back.” I kept my voice professional. “If you want me to.”

  “I’m all right, sir. I don’t need you to go to all that trouble.” She pressed her fists on either side of my spine, sliding them down my back with a tiny amount of pressure.

  “Maybe if you stopped calling me sir and called me Eli, you’d relax more, and this wouldn’t feel so damn awkward.”

  She flattened out her hands and ran them up and down my back, making my cock twitch at her touch. “Feeling awkward is natural, don’t you think? After all, we’ve just met, and I’ve got my hands all over your bare back.”

  “You’re rambling.” I sat up and turned to look at her. “And you’re being kind of a baby about something that’s done in offices all over the city all the time. Massages aren’t taboo, Kendra.”

  She crossed her arms and tapped her foot. “I’m not saying they are. I’m just saying that I think this is too much too soon. And I don’t need a massage myself to learn what it is you want. I don’t plan on making this a habit.”

  The way she was acting put my mind at ease. She did like me. Or at least she found me attractive. If she didn’t want me, at least a little, then touching me wouldn’t be affecting her so much. I reached for her hands. “Let me show you something.”

  Although hesitant, she put her hands in mine. “And what is it that you want to show me?”

  “Tell me what you feel.”

  She took a deep breath. “I feel l
ike you holding my hands is inappropriate.”

  A smile played at my mouth, but I held it at bay. “I meant, physically. When I hold your hands, I feel a lot of nervous energy going through you. Your hands are cold and clammy.”

  “Sorry. I’m kind of freaked out.”

  “You shouldn’t be. It’s not like I’ve asked you to massage my penis, Kendra.”

  Her face went pale then started to turn pink, then light red, then beet red as she yanked her hands out of mine. “You’ve gone too far. I don’t care if you are my boss, no one talks to me like that.”

  I laughed. “You’re being overly dramatic.”

  “You think you’re so damn hot and sexy! So what if you are. So what if women throw themselves at you. I may be naive to your big city ways, but I’m not stupid.”

  I was getting annoyed. “Just trying to get some tension relieved in my shoulders and back. Chill out.”

  “Chill out?” Her ears went red, and I knew I was in trouble. “Do you know how hard it is to run my hands all over those muscles?”

  I flexed my biceps. “Are you saying you like my guns?”

  I should have kept my mouth shut. Steam was beginning to roll out of her ears as she started to morph into Yosemite Sam, or maybe I just imagined that. The truth was, she was letting me know what I’d thought all along. She was hot for me. Maybe as hot for me as I was for her.

  “Do I like your guns? Seriously? Do you know where we are? We’re in an office. You’re the CEO and my mentor, and you’re sexually harassing me. Do you realize that?”

  The term sent my libido into a tailspin. I got up and put my shirt back on. “I’m sorry. I had no idea—”

  “Don’t you dare act like you had no idea!” she snarled. “You had every idea, and you know it. Here it is for you, Mr. Reed. You’re an attractive man. A man who’s used to getting what he wants from any woman he wants it from. I’m not the kind of woman who hands her body over to just any man. I have pride, and I’m not putting it to the side for you.”

  She stomped away, slamming her way out of my office and all I could do was watch her go. I’d fucked up, royally, that was all I knew.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Kendra

  I left my new boss’s office, and as I took the elevator down to the first floor, I decided to leave the entire building. I’d lost the internship with him. I was sure of that. I went off like a damn cartoon character at him, losing my cool completely.

  The hardest part was that he hadn’t been asking too much of me. I knew he only wanted a massage. I even caught a glimpse of the message on his computer that someone had left him, bugging him about things that weren’t under his control. That had to be hard on him. And I could’ve put my attraction for him to the side and helped him ease the tension he was experiencing.

  Instead, I freaked out, said things I couldn’t take back, and ruined what would’ve been a great opportunity for my career.

  As I rode in the back seat of a smelly cab, I looked at my hands that were still shaking. When Eli took off his shirt, I nearly lost my shit. His upper body was flawless. Each muscle was defined, and when I put my hands on him, everything inside me clenched.

  No one had ever gotten to me like he did. Just looking at him made me weak in the knees. Touching him, skin to skin, put me into a meltdown. If I’d done what he asked, I would’ve ended up stripped down, being taken on his desktop while I begged him for more.

  The way he affected me had me doing crazy things. I’d never be able to face him again. I thought about calling my college and asking them to see if I could get into another company for the summer internship.

  When the cab stopped, I paid the cabbie, then headed to my apartment. I knew I should be gathering my things, cleaning out my closet, and packing my toiletries, but I was too depressed to do that. Instead, I laid on the couch and closed my eyes.

  All the memories came flooding back to me. How I shouted. How I said stupid things. How I’d ruined any chance of working for Key Ventures in the future. Eli Reed was the owner of the damn company. He’d never allow me to be hired when I’d talked to him the way I had.

  Shit. What was I going to tell my father? That I let my vagina rule my head? Fat chance. He’d chastise me to no end if he knew the truth.

  Something had to be done. Maybe if I crawled back into Mr. Reed’s office and begged forgiveness, he’d see fit to let me stay on as his intern. I let that idea float around in my head a bit before I laughed it off.

  There was no way in the world I could make myself grovel at any man’s feet. I was a Baxter, after all. A fact I let lapse in my head when I saw Eli’s beautiful body and laid my hands on it.

  Why couldn’t the man be ugly?

  I must’ve fallen asleep during my pity party because the sound of the door opening startled me awake. Rubbing my eyes, I heard Jeff’s voice. “There you are. I suppose you got off earlier than everyone else thanks to your boyfriend.” He slammed the door, making me sit up.

  “My boyfriend?”

  His glare confused me. “Don’t act stupid. First, you took a two-hour lunch with your boss, where you drank wine. You reeked of it, by the way. You two were pretty chummy when he dropped you off at your cubicle. His hand on your back and the wave goodbye was so sweet.”

  I rolled my eyes. “That’s not how it was.”

  “Oh yeah?” He tossed his briefcase on the kitchen table and got a bottle of water out of the fridge. “I’m going to take all this water, just so you know.”

  “What do you mean by that?” The man had me thoroughly confused. I walked to the kitchen and watched him take all twelve bottles out and put them into an empty trash bag he’d taken out from under the counter.

  He ignored me as he added the microwave popcorn on the countertop. “Please stop acting like I’m an idiot. You have what you wanted. You get this apartment to yourself. You and Mr. Loverboy can get freaky up in here with me gone.”

  “Hold on.” I took a seat in one of the small chairs at the table, as my head was getting all fuzzy from what he was saying. “How am I getting this place to myself?”

  His lip curled in disgust. “I have to go sleep on the sofa at Lyle and Bobby’s thanks to you.” He threw open one of the cabinets and pulled out two boxes of cereal, tossing them into the trash bag he seemed intent on filling up with the groceries the company provided for us.

  “Why are you leaving? I’m not asking you to. I didn’t ask Eli to make you go.”

  His eyebrows jumped up on his forehead like a couple of hairy grasshoppers. “Eli?” He flung open the only other cabinet and took the bread and the bag of chips. “I see you’re now on a first name basis with your boss, Kendra. Want to know my boss’s first name?”

  “Uh, I guess so.”

  “I fucking don’t know it.” He slapped the cabinet door shut and pushed past me to get to the bathroom. “And I’m taking the cheap-ass shampoo and soap. I’m sure Eli will replace them with fancy shit for his mistress.”

  “I’m not his mistress.” I followed him, still not understanding why he had to move out. “Can you please tell me what happened? I left early—”

  He spun around, his glare stopping me in my tracks. “I know that. We all know that. You were called up to his office, then you left without even coming back to your cubicle. So how was it? Was he everything you dreamed he’d be and more?”

  “What are you talking about?” I shouted. He wasn’t listening to me, so I had no choice but to raise my voice at the man who was packing all our shit.

  He stopped taking the rolls of toilet paper off the shelf long enough to gawk at me. “You can drop the act. We know you went up to Eli’s office and that his admin left a few minutes later. Then you got to go home early. So, how was it? Did he fuck you on top of his desk? Or did you two go at it doggy style on the floor?”

  The urge to slap the shit out of him was overwhelming, but I held back. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. That’s not what happened at all.”
<
br />   The doorbell rang, and I left Jeff standing there, looking for more things he could take with him. When I opened the door, I found a man waiting with a few white boxes in his hands. Bloomingdale’s was written in gold across the tops of them. “Kendra Baxter?”

  “Yep, that’s her,” Jeff shouted as he came out of the bathroom, leaving it ransacked. He gave me a look that said he couldn’t believe me. “Bloomingdale’s huh? Sure, you didn’t screw him.”

  Heat filled my cheeks as I hurried to take the things from the delivery guy, who grinned at me. “There’s a card too.”

  I took everything and rushed to my bedroom. I was glad there was a card. Maybe it would tell me what Eli wanted me to do. My hands were shaking as I pulled the card out of the envelope. It was short and to the point. I was to be ready by eight o’clock sharp. Disappointing Mr. Reed would result in my internship being canceled.

  I wasn’t fired!

  Weak with relief, I headed back out into the living area to grab my purse and start to get ready for the ballet. I’d be ready on time and make myself as presentable as I could. Maybe I wouldn’t have to beg for Eli’s forgiveness, which made me euphoric.

  Jeff came out of his bedroom with his bags packed. “I didn’t have time to unpack, thanks to you. You know what little sluts like you get?”

  I held up a hand. “I’m the furthest thing from a slut you’ve ever seen.”

  “Save it, skank. No one will ever believe your bullshit, and just so you know, you’ll end up in the secretarial pool once he’s done with you. As for the rest of us, we’ll be in nice offices, making loads of money, and none of us will have to suck a cock to get there.”

  Rage made my hands tremble. “You’re disgusting and stupid, and I don’t care what you and the other idiots think about me. I know I’m not doing what you think I am. And I don’t give a rat’s ass about any of you. So, you can go fuck yourself.” I turned around and headed back to my bedroom, flipping him off as I left.