Chapter 1

Mona

I took a deep breath, rolled my shoulders back, and allowed myself one more look in the mirror. Yes, I looked fine – and no, I couldn’t find a single reason to linger about in the hallway of my apartment for even a minute longer. I was stalling.

I wasn’t sure why my nerves had suddenly overwhelmed me so late in the game. I’d had weeks of notice leading up to this moment, ample opportunity to work off all the nervous energy that had crept up on me in the last half-hour.

No, my stupid anxiety had to choose right this instant to reveal itself, and here I was trying to calm down minutes before I had to get out the door and show up for my first day of work at Artemis Tech.

I still couldn’t believe I’d landed the job. I had spent months looking for something and after so much rejection I decided it couldn’t hurt to apply for the position, even though I was certain they would take one look at my resume and toss it in the trash.

I was a business graduate without a single minute of secretarial experience clocked, let alone any that would qualify me to work alongside one of the biggest names in the business world right now.

Even when they had called me in for the interview, I convinced myself it had to be some kind of mistake.

I sat down opposite the woman in charge of hiring, and I guess my complete lack of confidence and hope relaxed me enough to leave a good impression. I got the offer two weeks later. Go figure.

I kept my cool long enough to accept the offer and write down a few details, but as soon as the woman from Artemis’ HR department hung up, I dropped my phone, punched the air, squealed and collapsed back into the couch, relieved that the search for gainful employment was finally over..

My roommate Katya having heard the commotion, walked in with a furrowed brow.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“I got a job,” I said, still dumfounded. “I got a job!”

“Oh, shit!” she said, cocking her head and grinning. She was well aware that my savings were almost completely depleted, so the news was as much a relief to her as it was to me.

“Where’s the job?”

“Artemis Tech,” I said, shaking my head in disbelief.

Her eyes bugged out of her head, and I was sure I saw a flash of jealousy pass across her face. Still, she reached out to pat my shoulder.

“Well, congratulations.” she offered, and turned to go back to her bedroom.

I knew this was as much of a surprise to her as it was to me. Artemis Tech was the company everyone dreamed of working for.

Oliver Paulson had created the kind of career everyone in my graduating class could only dream of, a start-up business he launched straight out of college. And he spent every waking hour since then working his ass off to turn his baby into a world-dominating enterprise.

Now, I would be working alongside him.

My heart jolted again. I fished my phone out from between the couch cushions and dialed my mom. I wanted to share my news with someone who wouldn’t think I was gloating.

That was a month and a half ago, and I had spent a very lean six weeks doing every bit of research on the company I could manage. I learned the history of Artemis Tech back-to-front, scouring over as many profiles of Oliver as I could get my hands on and reading up desperately on advice from people who’d worked as secretaries in companies like the one I would be starting at.

I signed my contracts, guaranteeing me six months at the company, and spent most of my nights staring at the ceiling, wondering what it would be like to work near someone like Oliver Paulson. I had repeated his name so many times in my head, it almost lost its meaning. Oliver Paulson. O-li-ver Paul-son.

He was kind of hot. I had to admit that. Maybe it was because he held the future of my career in his hands, but I found myself gazing a little too long over pictures of him in the profiles. I noticed his sharp jaw and expensive suits, wondering if he had chosen his hair style because he knew how chiseled it made his cheekbones look.

He was about fifteen years older than me, but that didn’t matter. One of the reasons I’d avoided dating through college was because I found so many of my classmates to be immature and irritating. The thought of someone who worked hard, ran his own company, and was already a stone-cold success was deeply attractive to me.

I did my best to keep those kinds of thoughts from my head. I knew it would be crazy to think for even a second that someone like him would give me the time of day.

In my search for Oliver Paulson profiles, I had come across plenty of paparazzi shots of him stumbling out of nightclubs and bars with whatever hot actress or model the tabloids were obsessed with at the time. He seemed to have a knack for picking the most famous, the most beautiful, and the most stylish women in the country and making them his dates for the night.

I would have been crazy to think for a second, with all that on offer, he would take so much as a second glance at someone like me. I was there to do a job, and the chances of that woman having hired me because she thought I would make some delicious eye-candy for her boss seemed pretty damn slim. They didn’t get where they were in the business world by letting Oliver’s libido make decisions for him.

Still, a girl could dream, and indulging myself in a few steamy fantasies had done plenty to distract me from the stress of starting a new position.

I had never been one for dating. I had managed a couple of casual hookups in college but nothing serious, and the last year before graduating had been so crazy busy and stressful that dating and sex was the last things on my mind.

My crush on Oliver was nothing more than my sex drive reminding me that it existed, and that I might want to satisfy it at some point in the near future. But for now it would have to wait. My impending career was taking up most of the real estate in my head. Like exactly how I was going to use this new position to my advantage.

It was an incredible opportunity. I had to make it count. Katya had done her best to avoid the subject with me in the beginning, clearly a little bitter that she was still working at the coffee shop to make ends meet, while I had landed a cool, new position at an awesome company. But she eventually came around.

“Yeah, I’m jealous as shit,” she said. “But hey, maybe when you’re a higher-up there, you can put in a good word for me, right?”

“I’ll drop your name as often as I can,” I assured her as she’d handed me a plate to dry.

“Just order all your coffee from me so I can come by and get to know everyone.” she suggested, laughing but definitely not joking.

“I’ll do my best,” I promised, and she smiled, returning her attention to the dishes.

We had been living together for a few months now, both of us escaping from the group apartment we shared with a couple of other friends in college to a two bedroom of our own. It had taken a bit getting used to but it was getting easier and easier.

She was still fast asleep as I slipped out the door for my first day of work.

I was dressed in a skirt that was perhaps a little too tight, left over from the internship I’d done right out of high school. I had to borrow one of Katya’s blouses, which was a little loose over the bust area. I’d managed to pin everything in place, but I swore as I walked out the door, the first thing I would do with my pay check was get some clothes that fit for a change.

I didn’t have money for a taxi, so I caught the train across town. The business district was pretty far from our slightly run-down end of the city, and I appreciated the time to stare out the window, zone out, and center myself in preparation for the day.

I knew I was overthinking it, that no one would expect me to sweep in there and know everything all at once, but my perfectionism was nagging at the back of my brain, reminding me I was actually going to have to learn how to do this job. I hated feeling behind on anything, but it was an inevitability, so I’d just have to suck it up.

The train arrived at my stop, and I pushed through the dozens of commuters to get off. All of them were dressed in sharp fitted clothes, at least ten of them already babbling on their phones, securing crazy-important deals I couldn’t even imagine the scope of.

I smiled. These were my people. This was me now.

I hurried down the street to the building that housed Artemis Tech, allowing myself to pause outside to appreciate the enormity of it. One day, I’d build a business that could barely be housed by a skyscraper, just like this one.

I ducked inside and held up the ID I’d been sent in the mail a few weeks earlier, and the bored-looking receptionist nodded me through. On my way to the elevator, I noticed a couple of curious glances from the other employees, who were no doubt wondering where the hell I thought I was going.

I lifted my chin and shot straight for the top floor, as I’d been directed to do in an email a few days prior. There was no one here to hold my hand. I had to take control, and I kind of enjoyed that.

The elevator dinged open, and I stepped out, inhaling deeply. The open-plan office space smelled of printing ink and lemon scented cleaning product. I strolled through to the enormous door that led to my new workspace.

Emblazoned in impressive gold letters on the door were the words Oliver Paulson, CEO. I paused for a moment and glanced around, half-expecting someone to reveal this was all a prank, and that I should leave before humiliating myself further. No one did, so I pushed the door open as my heart flipped somersaults in my chest.

This was it. My career started right here.

I lifted my eyes, and my jaw dropped. Standing before me was the hottest freaking man I’d ever seen in my life.

He stood a good few inches taller than me but wasn’t gangly and skinny like most of the guys I’d met in my college class. No, he was lean and strong, the definition of his muscles visible, even through the expensive shirt he wore. His eyes were gray and striking, his jaw smattered with a dusting of stubble that looked haphazard, but I knew probably cost a bomb to keep looking as good as it did.

He nodded at me, not smiling, and I felt my eyes widen involuntarily as I realized he was actually paying attention to me.

It didn’t make sense. How could someone who looked like that have his attention on somebody like me?

“Mona?”

He spoke my name, and hearing it snapped me out of the reverie I’d put myself in.

I shuffled my feet and cleared my throat, nodding.

“Yes, that’s me.”

I extended my hand to him and he took it.

As soon as our skin touched, I felt a jolt of electricity pass from his fingers to mine. Holy hell, what was it about this guy?

“I’m really looking forward to working with you,” I began, repeating the spiel I’d practiced in my head on the way over. “I-”

“Yeah, me too.”

He seemed distracted.

“I have a meeting to get to. If you speak to Andrea in HR, she’ll be able to run down everything you’ll need to do for the next couple of days, okay?”

“Of course,” I said confidently, in spite of feeling a little breathless as I watched him grab a couple of things off his desk – a file, a notebook, and a pen.

“Your office is in there.”

He gestured to a door that led off the room we were currently in.

“I’ll see you later?” I blurted before I could stop myself, and he paused to eye me for a moment, finally managing something approximating a smile.

“Yeah, sure.”

He nodded and went to the door. I was left standing in the middle of his office, staring at the space he had just occupied, wondering if I could have made it any more obvious that I thought he was gorgeous. He was preoccupied, though, and I’m sure he couldn’t care less about my ridiculous crush. As well he shouldn’t.

I shook my head and moved toward the office he’d indicated was mine. I opened the door and stepped into the small room that was to be my work home for the next six months and let out a small sigh.

Dumping my bag on the chair, I stepped over to the small window overlooking the city and let out a smile, feeling instantly more calm. It wasn’t like I was in love with the guy, I was just flustered, that was all. Nervous on my first day. Now, I had to get in touch Andrea and figure out precisely what I was meant to do for the day.

I got myself set up with a to-do list and plenty to keep me busy for the rest of the day. Oliver wasn’t anywhere to be found, and his schedule told me he was in meetings all day.

A couple of times, I heard him ducking back into his office for something or other, but I knew sticking my head out to see if he needed anything would only cause me to get under his feet, and that was the last thing I wanted. The best I could do was to swim comfortably under his radar. If he noticed me, it wouldn’t be for the right reasons.

I finished up my duties around five. I had spent the day sending out emails, getting my office set up, and putting in a couple of phone calls regarding Mr. Paulson’s personal schedule. I made sure to stay a few minutes extra before heading home.

Yes, I was tired, but I didn’t want to look too keen to get out of there. I needed them to be goddamn sure I appreciated this job as much as I did, and I wasn’t going to take twenty extra minutes relaxing at home over that.

I heard Oliver re-enter his office, and resolved to go once he’d left again. Ten minutes passed, then twenty, then a half-hour, and I sat there in my office getting restless as I waited for him to leave.

I checked his schedule. His meetings were done for the day, so why was he still hanging around? If I were him and ran a company this big, there would be no way in hell they could keep me in there a minute longer than they had to.

Then again, as had often been drilled into me, it was the people who went the extra mile who did the best in the long run.

I paced back and forth, ears pricked for the sound of the door closing as he left, but there was nothing. Eventually, after packing and repacking my bag a couple times to kill time, I hooked it over my shoulder and went for the door. I wasn’t going to hide out here like an eighth-grader eating lunch in the bathroom to avoid the mean girls. I had shit to do.

I took a deep breath, bracing myself, and pushed the door open. Oliver glanced up at me briefly. He had been looking through papers on his desk, and I felt something in my chest seize up as I looked into those gorgeous eyes.

Okay, I was going to need to get the hell over this crush if I had any hope of working with him like a grown adult.

“Oh, hey,” he said. “I forgot you were here.”

“I was just going to head home,” I managed, my voice higher than I’d heard it before. “Is there anything else you need me to do before I go?”

“No, you’re good,” he said and turned his attention back to the papers. Although, I may have been mistaken, but I might have caught him peering at me out of the corner of his eye for a moment. Probably just checking that I was actually going already.

“Cool.”

I went to the door and paused for a moment before I opened it. I felt something in my stomach, some kind of force tugging me back to him. I closed my eyes and forced myself to pump the handle and walk out of there.

As soon as I was back on the street, I shook my head and took a deep breath. I had no idea what that had been about. When had I turned into some kind of swooning school girl just because a guy was good looking? There had been plenty of impressive dudes at college, and I had managed to keep myself in check around them. That was all Oliver was – a good-looking guy. That was it.

That’s what I told myself all the way home, on the train and the short walk back to my apartment, where I flopped down on the couch and closed my eyes, totally spent from my first day of work.

“Hey,” Katya said when she wandered through from the kitchen, wearing her uniform and pulling her hair back. She would be doing the after-work shift, maybe even serving a few of the people I’d met in the office earlier today.

“Hey,” I sighed, tilting my head back to look at her.

“Good first day?”

She smiled at me as she went on the daily hunt for her keys.

“Yeah, it was fine,” I shrugged. “Just getting settled in.”

“And how was Oliver?” she asked, as if it were just a casual question, but I could hear the innuendo in her voice.

“He was a little cold, but he was super busy today, so I’m not reading too much into it,” I replied, carefully.

I didn’t want to say anything too strong on either side, in case it somehow got back to him.

“Is he as cute as he is in the pictures?” she teased, and I flushed.

I hated that. It was a bad habit I couldn’t shake, a natural reaction to any kind of discomfort that I might be feeling.

“Yeah, I guess,” I replied diplomatically. “You off to work?”

“Yeah, don’t worry, you have the place to yourself for the rest of the night.”

She nudged me as she went by.

“You got any plans?”

“Just relaxing.” I yawned. “I forgot how tough it is actually having to do shit during the day.”

“Yeah, college spoiled us a little,” she agreed, finally finding her keys. “Okay, I’m off. Have a good night. See you tomorrow?”

“See you.”

I waved her off without turning around, dramatically flopping down onto the couch to demonstrate I was too tired to move.

As soon as she was gone, I went to the kitchen to scavenge, but there was nothing I felt like eating. It was my first day at a new job, and I was tired, hungry, and would soon have more cash than I had in months. If there was any time I could justify getting takeout, it was now.

I pulled out a pizza menu from the messy drawer above the oven, picked out a deal that sounded good, and called to place my order. Then, I ran a bath and slipped into the warm water, confident I had at least forty minutes before the food arrived. That was plenty of time to unwind and ease the pain in my tired muscles.

I tried to clear my mind, but instead, found my thoughts drifting to Oliver. He looked so freaking good in those suits.

I imagined what it would be like to watch him undo the buttons on his shirt, his manly hands careful and his fingers deft as he popped the buttons out on the cuff, slowly pulling the fabric open over his chest. He’d hang the shirt up carefully, maybe shooting me a look as he did so.

My hand slid down between my legs and I closed my eyes. My fingers found my clit as I imagined him sliding into bed next to me. His skin would feel warm, and his expensive cologne would fill my senses.

He’d trail his fingers up my bare waist, making me shiver, and he’d grin at the sight of me, so helpless at his touch. He’d lean over to kiss me, almost carefully, pushing his tongue into my mouth as he did so and moaning softly, as though he’d been waiting for the moment all day long.

As soon as our lips met, he’d grow more dominant, rolling on top of me and sliding his hands up and down my body, hungrily as he continued to kiss me. He would be so far removed from the guys I’d hooked up with in college, so totally in control and powerful, and he’d slip his fingers between my legs.

“You’re so wet,” he’d growl into my ear, and he’d be right. I’d be waiting for this, craving him, and I’d be so ready. His long, strong finger would slide deep into my pussy, making a beckoning motion. He’d find that oh so sensitive spot, deep within me, and tease it and coax it until my breathing sped up and I began thrusting against his hand.

He’d have had no intentions of making me wait. He’d unbuckle his pants, and he’d take my hand and pull it to his rock-hard erection, looking me in the eyes as he did so. He’d grimace slightly with pleasure as I touched him, and I’d draw him toward my pussy, aching for him, needing him.

I’d take his cock and squeeze it in my hand, feeling the throb of his pulse as his heart pounded for me. I’d bring the cock to the lips of my pussy and let it touch me, just enough to get the slightest little bit wet.

Once he had a taste of me, or once his cock had a taste of my juices, I should say, there would be no stopping him. He’d be throbbing with desire, craving me so intensely that with just a few hard thrusts, he’d be cumming inside me, filling me up with his cum and making a very definite claim on me. I’d be his after that. There’s nothing that says you belong to a man like having a pussy full of his cum!

I lifted myself up in the bathtub so that my pussy was closer to the faucet. I turned on the water and made sure the temperature was just right. As I continued to fantasize about Oliver, I let the warm jet of water wash over my clit and send pleasure searing through me.

“Oh God,” I moaned as my body began to surrender to the pleasure that was building up inside me.

I tried to picture, as clearly as I could in my mind, Oliver’s cock pouring it’s cum into me. I tried to imagine the way it would make him feel toward me, the way it would make him realize that I was his and he was mine. And then, in a crash of ecstasy, I was cumming.

The orgasm rushed through me like a hurricane.

Suddenly, the buzzer on the door sounded, ripping me straight from my fantasy and depositing me firmly back into reality. My lips parted in surprise, my eyes flipping open, and I snatched my hand out from between my legs as though I’d been caught doing something I shouldn’t have been doing.

Frustrated, I dragged myself out of the bath and upright, sighing deeply as I slipped on my robe and went to the door.

I thought they said a half-hour at least on the phone. This pizza better be damned good if it was going to make up for interrupting my completely work-inappropriate fantasy starring my new boss.

I rolled my shoulders back, patted my hair into place as best I could, and opened the door. Back to reality.

For now.