Chapter 1

Grant

“Here at J&M Energy, we pride ourselves on two things: getting people the energy they need in whatever form they wish, and making money. For the past three years, we’ve accomplished the former. But now it’s time to accomplish the latter.”

I had all the junior executives gathered in the boardroom. For the past three years, my natural gas company had focused on tailoring our needs to the general public. We’d branched out and expanded up the entire East Coast, but now it was time to rake in some money.

“While the company’s been growing, if you compare the last three years to the previous ten, our sales and revenue have actually declined,” Alex said. “Now, what is your knee-jerk reaction to that statement?”

“Our expansion,” Dylan said.

“That’s the usual reaction, yes,” Alex said. “Now, can anyone tell me why that’s a pathetic fallback?”

“Because expansion into other states should mean more consumers,” Dylan said. “Looking at all the income as a whole shouldn’t exclude what we’re paying in debt in order to make money.”

“Anyone else in the room awake?” I asked. “Is Anderson the only J.E. that came to work today?”

Murmurs from incompetent junior executives ricocheted across the room, and all I could do was sigh. Dylan Anderson was the only promising one out of the bunch, but even he needed some refinement. Alex Marks was my right-hand man, not to mention the man I bought the company from eight years ago. He was doing just fine on his own, but he was scared to branch out, scared to take his company to the next level. You couldn’t run a company on fear, so I came in and decided to do it for him.

At first he was pissed. Why should he believe a younger man, like myself, who came in with a tailored suit and a string of companies he had only spent a few years with and proclaimed he could suddenly turn all his problems around? Even to myself it would’ve smelled like a con. But I’d been sure of myself, and I had told him I could spend two weeks improving everything around him—free of charge. If he didn’t like the changes and didn’t see the improvement, I’d go on my way and he wouldn’t even have to pay me.

Needless to say, I proved my point. Things improved and I got paid.

“Can I throw out the first idea?” Dylan asked.

“Better than what everyone else is doing,” Alex said.

“Assuming the projections will have us earning next quarter, why don’t we branch into government contracts?” Dylan asked. “We’re stationed in Baton Rouge for fuck’s sake, and we’re an hour away from New Orleans. The navy contracts alone would do this company some good.”

“All right,” I said. “Assuming this would be good for our image, why don’t you begin to research that avenue, Dylan? That way, if we pursue it, it’ll be something you can use on your resume.”

That statement wet the palate of the lazy room of junior executives I’d assembled. Suddenly, their mouths were watering like vicious dogs, ready to take a bite out of the meat presented to them, and I was more than happy to oblige. I enjoyed their drive when they had it, but it always took some tempting.

And tempting was something I did best.

“What about this whole ‘fracking’ deal?” another executive asked. “What if we got in on that?”

“Get on the research,” I said.

“What’s keeping us from expanding into the West Coast?” another threw out.

“Research!” I exclaimed.

“What about charities?” someone else said. “Does the company donate? With the millennial culture, if a company throws its assets behind a cause they can stand with, that usually generates more revenue with just what we’re doing now.”

“Look into it; then get back to me,” I said. “It’s actually an idea I’ve been tossing around the past few weeks, but I haven’t had time to pass it on.”

“Anything else?” Alex asked.

After a few beats of silence, I nodded my head. The room disbursed as the excited junior executives chattered away about their new tasks. I shuffled the files in front of me, readying them to be put back into my briefcase, but then a light hand descended on my shoulder.

“Yes, Alex?” I asked.

“I’ve got something to ask you,” Alex said.

“Something that wasn’t appropriate for the meeting, I’m assuming.”

“Correct. It’s more of a…personal favor.”

I threw my gaze over to Alex before I nodded, telling him he could proceed. If there was one thing I enjoyed about Alex Marks, it was the fact that he never asked for anything. He was resourceful, had connections with individuals that spanned three entire rolodexes, and had a decent head on his shoulders. After all, he was the one who had built the company to be the most-used natural gas company in Louisiana.

I just came in and made it the most-used gas company on the East Coast.

“Well, spit it out, Marks,” I said. “What is it?”

“It would really help me out if you would consider it,” he said.

“Alex, in all the years I’ve known you, you’ve never pussyfooted around anything. I value your friendship greatly, not just your businesslike demeanor and knowledge. I’d do just about anything for you. You know this. What the fuck is it, man?”

“Crissy’s home from college,” he said.

“Well, I bet that’s fun for your new wife,” I said, grinning.

“She’s raising hell, Grant. I mean some serious hell. And it’s pissing Mel off. And me off.”

“I’m pretty sure Mel’s still going through puberty, so anything’s likely to piss her off,” I said.

“Not funny.”

“That’s what you get for marrying someone who’s a few years older than your daughter. Crissy’s, what, twenty-three now?”

“Twenty-two,” he said.

“And Mel?”

I stuck my hands in my pockets and waited for Alex to respond. I loved fucking with him about his new wife. She was the stereotypical exotic beauty: tall, thin features, long-ass legs, dark hair, and dark, brooding eyes to match. Even if she was simply staring off into space, it looked as if she was trying to figure out the source of the universe itself.

“Twenty-six,” Alex said, murmuring.

“That never gets old,” I said, chuckling. “What is it you need?”

“Crissy’s a smart girl,” he said. “She really is, but she’s just driving us all insane. Having her around the house is too much for both of us. She needs something to occupy her time that falls in line with her degree.”

“She went to Dartmouth College, right?” I asked. “What’s her degree in?”

“Business,” Alex said.

“Takes after her father, I see.”

“Honestly, I had no idea until about halfway through her college career,” Alex said. “When she did come home, the only shit she talked about was parties, booze, and boys.”

“Sounds like a wild child, but then again, she’s always been that way,” I said, shrugging.

“She’s got no desire to get a decent job, no desire to move out, no desire to start any life of her own. She just sits around the house pestering Mel and me and raising the type of hell she usually does.”

“I’m not going to lie,” I said. “It’s easy to make Mel angry. I’d do it for fun if I could, too. What is it you’re asking, Alex?”

“I was wondering if you had an internship here she could fill.”

The request stunned me for a second. He wanted me to take on his hellion daughter as an intern? We were a natural gas company. Enough hot air spewed from between that young girl’s lips to blow up half of Louisiana’s oil rigs.

“It would get her out of the house,” Alex said. “It would get her some experience in the field she got her degree in, and it would fucking give Mel and me some time to breathe.”

“And fuck, I presume,” I said.

“Grant.”

“Hey, you’re the one who’s asking,” I said.

“I can tell you’re less than thrilled,” he said.

“You’re asking me to take on a person even you describe as a wild child. Yes, I’m a bit hesitant to do it.”

“Just entertain the idea for a second, all right?” Alex asked. “Look at these executives that just poured out of this room. You’ve taken a misfit bunch of idiots and whipped them into prime slabs of beef for the business world. The ideas they threw out there are really good, and it’s because of your tutelage.”

“You don’t have to stroke my dick on this one, Alex,” I said, grinning.

“No, I’m just being serious. Even I can admit when you do something I can’t, and I never would’ve been able to pull that kind of shit off with them. If there’s anyone who can whip Crissy into shape, it’s you. Honestly? I don’t care what the fucking internship is as long as she’s got her hands in something here instead of something at my house.”

“You do realize you’re talking about your own daughter, right?” I asked.

“Look, all I’m saying is that Crissy needs a bit of guidance.”

“Guidance her own father can’t give her?” I asked.

“Look, Grant, things were tough. When Abby died…”

Alex panned his gaze out the window, and the moment his eyes began to glisten, I knew I’d take on the internship. I knew shit was hard when his wife died. It was one of the things that had strengthened our friendship. I understood his pain over losing his wife. I’d lost mine a little over a decade ago, and I’d had no passion to create any sort of substantial relationship with anyone since then, much less with a woman. But I had created one with Alex.

Then I watched him bounce from woman to woman before marrying a pretty young idiot only a few years older than his damn daughter.

“I know,” I said. “Alex, believe me. I get it. If there’s anyone in this fucking company who gets it, it’s me. But you gotta understand. I mean, I’m no father, but—”

“That’s right,” he said. “You’re not. All I’m asking is if there’s any internship my daughter could possibly apply for. She needs the experience if she’s ever going do something with her degree.”

Alex always got defensive whenever Abby was brought up. Everyone knew Crissy took a nosedive for the worse when Abby passed away, but it was something Alex didn’t know how to deal with. He’d been coping with his own loss, and Crissy needed her father, but when it came right down to it, she didn’t have him.

At least, that was how I saw it.

“You don’t even have to pay her,” Alex said as he turned his gaze back to me.

“I’ll pay her for the internship, but I’ll have to figure out where she’ll fit in the best,” I said. “It would be a bad idea to just put her as an intern for the junior executives. Those men would fucking eat her alive.”

“So, you’ll do it?” Alex asked.

“Yes, I’ll do it.”

“Thanks so much, Grant. Seriously. Just let me know what she’ll be doing and when she’ll be starting. I’ll tell her tonight that we’re coming up with something.”

“I’ll let you know when I do,” I said.

Alex retreated from the room, and I raked my hand through my hair. I couldn’t believe I’d just agreed to take on the hellion of the South. Crissy caused trouble wherever she went, and she seemed to take pride in it. She was obviously smart. Obtaining a business degree from an Ivy League school was no small feat, but I had no doubt in my mind that she had partied just as hard when she was at college. It was easy to see why Mel wanted her out of the way.

I couldn’t put her anywhere near the junior executives. Those men wouldn’t just eat her up because she was a woman; they’d eat her up because she was gorgeous. Even I could appreciate the younger female form when it presented itself in the proper fashion, and Crissy was the perfect example of proper womanly form. She had big tits, a small waist, and an ass you could bounce a coin off. Alex had half-assed raised a gorgeous daughter, and the only thing she would do was flirt with the junior executives all fucking day.

If she was going to be an intern at this company, she was at least going to get something from it. But if she couldn’t fraternize with the junior executives, there was really only one place I’d be able to keep my eye on her and mold her in the way Alex wanted me to.

And that was if she was at my side.

The only option I had was to make her my personal assistant. People had been telling me to get a secretary for years, but I didn’t want to spend the money just to have someone sit outside my fucking office and pester me. But a personal assistant would do more than just work. I could send her on lunch and coffee runs. I could get her to help with my dry cleaning. She could take all the little stuff off my plate while simultaneously taking minutes for important meetings, and it would give her a taste of the world she had majored in while giving me a few more minutes in my day to do more important things.

The only issue would be keeping her distracted from the young men who ran around this fucking place long enough to teach her something. If those boys got a whiff of her, if they even took a one-second look at the body that young girl was carrying around, they’d be all over her.

And she would love it.

If there was any man in this company who could control himself around a beautiful female, it was me—not to mention the personal relationship I had with her father. Having her at my side and working with me would not only present a mentoring opportunity, but it would keep her safe. I could fend off the hungry dogs and show her that the workplace wasn’t a place of fraternization. That was something a party girl like Crissy really needed to learn. I trusted myself, as well as my relationship with her father, more than anything on this planet, so I headed down to human resources to notify them of my decision.

I had to let them know they needed to talk with accounting to release the funds necessary to hire Crissy Marks as my personal assistant.