Chapter Ten
Harris
“Your meeting with the CEO of Mascatar has postponed your meeting, and Planning and Development are scheduled to meet the day after tomorrow.” Pam’s voice managed to wiggle its way past my memories of how Addilyn felt, sounded and tasted, but her words didn’t take hold. Rather, they slipped away, forgotten as soon as they were heard.
“I’m sorry, Pam. Do you mind briefing me again in the morning? I just need some time with some of my thoughts.” I wouldn’t mention to her that those thoughts were wondering what it would feel like to have Addilyn under me as I made her come all over my cock again. Sleeping with a subordinate was bad enough. I didn’t need to add a sexual harassment claim from Pam from admitting to her that I had a half-chubby thinking about the fact that Addilyn was sitting at her desk just down the hall from my office. If I thought that I could stifle her pleasure cries, I’d call in her right now, put her knees over my shoulders and have a long, slow lunch with her on my face.
Okay... so my half-chub just grew to a three-quarter chub. The constricting fabric of my slacks felt less than good, and the pants seam was slicing into me. I desperately needed to adjust myself, but I had to get Pam out of my office first.
“Yes, sir,” Pam answered, her consummate and usual professional self. “You’re meeting with Mr. Druthers is in ten minutes.”
Druthers. That was enough to sober my mood. He was the accountant who was embezzling from the company. Against my better judgment, I’d taken Addilyn’s advice and scheduled a meeting with him to let him know that his theft had been discovered.
“Thank you, Pam.” I watched her leave and resisted the urge to crane my neck to the side in hopes of catching a glimpse of Addilyn. When the door closed, its latch clicking into place, I groaned and dropped my forehead to my desk. “What am I doing?” I hadn’t let myself get let around by my dick since I’d been in college, but I knew it was more than that. I was wild about Addilyn. I loved her defiant attitude. I loved the way she always managed to say the wrong thing while still speaking the truth. And, though I was resisting her influence on the matter, I loved her compassion and her belief in human nature. She believed there was a chance that money management errors could happen by mistake rather than by design, but at this level of business and oversight, I had never once found that to be the case. Not even once.
Lifting my head, I slouched back in my chair. This thing with Addilyn had to be gotten under control. Even if she didn’t see it, what I was doing wasn’t right. I’d seen the abuses that had happened within such relationships throughout my years as being head of a corporation. Careers had been ruined, sometimes families had been destroyed. I’d seen betrayal and manipulation happen both down and up the chain of command. It rarely ended well, and I cared too much about Addilyn’s future to subject her to the scandal that would be attached to word getting out about our... I didn’t even know what to call it. I didn’t want to call it an affair. She was more to me than the heaven that was between her legs. She was a whole person. Yet, despite that how much I wanted her, the truth was that she wasn’t mine. I had no rights over her, the same as her with me. We were coworkers who had shared a moment, nothing more, and the sobering truth of that fact eased the uncomfortable tension that I’d been feeling at my crotch as want and desire were overridden by the sensibilities that time gave. Yet, despite that, despite my better judgment, I longed for her companionship… the sound of her laugh, the way she turned her head when she was lost in a thought, and the gentle scent of her favorite perfume. Though I could see her at a moment’s notice and had seen her numerous times today, I missed her.
A knock sounded at the door. “Come,” I called out, keeping the order succinct. The door opened and the pale face of Mr. Druthers leaned in. “Come,” I said again, waving him in with my hand. Only then did he build up the courage to step into my office, yet he hesitated when I told him to close the door behind him.
I said nothing as he made his way to my desk. He walked like a man who was knowingly on his way to the gallows. He moved as if an anvil were due to crash down on his head at any second—but he didn’t know which second. After he sat in the chair in front of my desk, I took my time to study him before I spoke again. His skin was waxy and there was a hollow, sunken quality to his eyes. Guilt was eating the man alive, leaving him a wraith where once a vibrant man had existed.
“I know that you’ve been embezzling,” I said. I saw no point in dragging the matter out. As if the shock was too much at being called out for what he’d done, Mr. Samuel Druthers started coughing, and for a moment I thought that he would not be able to quit. Finally, he gasped in a full breath of air, his watery eyes locking with mine.
“What?” His voice was weak, tremulous.
I softened my voice and leaned forward. There was no reason to beat the man now that he was down. “I know that you embezzled from the company. I called you into this meeting as a courtesy before I alert the board and notify the police. Over the last year, you have managed to manipulate the quarterly report to reflect an under-earning of one point seven million dollars. It was well hidden, but the discrepancies have been found and the authorities will be notified of the theft.”
“No.... No!” Sam seemed to melt before me as if the cords of his marionette strings had been suddenly cut. “This can’t be happening. Not now. Not on top of everything else.” I let him have his moment without interfering. Sometimes a person needed the chance to work through the heft of their grief before being ready to face what was to come next. But, to my surprise, Sam’s head lifted and his watery gaze locked with mine. “I didn’t steal from you. Not one penny. Not once in all of the years that I’ve worked for this company.” He scooted forward to the edge of his chair, leaning in to what he had to say next. “I have cancer.”
It was my turn to feel as if my marionette strings had been cut. I’d had my fighting gloves on, ready to pummel the man into the floor with the facts about what he’d done, but I had not expected this.
“I’ve been going through radiation and now chemo. I’m in pain—” His voice broke. “Most of the time, but I’ve got a kid who’s going to Julliard and I haven’t wanted to go on medical leave until there wasn’t any other choice. I—” His voice broke again. “I wanted to give my family everything I could give them while I still had something left in me.”
My throat was tight, almost refusing to work, as I forced the words out. “It’s terminal?”
Sam leaned back once more in his chair, exhaustion seeming to move in after all of his energy was depleted. “Maybe. I mean, I hope not. I still have a chance. There’s still a chance, you know?” His eyes dropped to where his hands lay in his lap before he lifted his gaze to meet me again. “I’m sorry. I must have screwed up somewhere. I didn’t take anything. The sickness, the treatments—they’ve used me up. I... I didn’t cheat. I...” He took a deep, shaky breath and let it out slowly. “I wouldn’t want to leave my family with that kind of legacy.”
It was time for an executive decision, and if not by men, then by who? “Sam, you are now on indefinite medical leave. You have shown yourself incapable of performing the tasks of your job as described by your job description. Your salary during your medical leave with remain at 100% of your current pay, including any scheduled bonuses. At the time that you are ready to return to work, a position of equal standing will be made available to you if your current position is no longer available, and I will inform HR to provide you with financial assistance out of the company’s crisis fund to assist with your medical bills. And, if you do succumb to your illness, college scholarships will be arranged for your children.”
Sam’s face fell, seeming to melt as all tension left it. Shaking hands lifted to his face to wipe away a stream of runaway tears that had finally spilled over the brim of his eyes. “Thank you.”
“Don’t keep this kind a thing a secret, okay? The company—me—I’m not the enemy, Sam. We’ll be here for you as much as we can.” I couldn’t save him from his illness, but maybe I could save him from all of the related fears. If I managed that, there was a chance that I’d be able to sleep tonight rather than relive the moment that I realized that an employee of mine was staring into the abyss... alone, with the knowledge that I’d been too blind with my own misconceptions to see it.