On Monday morning, I’m back in the office, and I couldn’t be happier. I spent the whole weekend golfing with clients and shareholders. It’s part of my job as the CEO, and it’s boring as fuck. I’m glad to be back in the office where I’m at home, and I’m king of my castle.

I can’t get Kylie out of my mind, either. When I was on the golf course, I had some time to think, and I’m not quite sure where we stand. When she came to my office she was more than down to fuck – the mood had been perfect, and she was just as caught up in it as I was.

But when I saw her at Alchemist, she was different. I wouldn’t say standoffish as much as careful, but it wasn’t what it had been in the office. Even with the vibrator incident, which was hot as fuck, something was different. When she started talking about her mom… Well, things shifted. I’m not even sure what I think or where I stand now. I know what she’s up to—at least I think I do—but my motivation to get her out before she does any real damage is coming into question. She’s not at all like I thought she’d be. What if I have this whole thing wrong?

I keep going back to how things were different at Alchemist. I mean, I guess that’s to be expected. Everyone from the office – including Leon – was there, and I know she’s nervous about losing her job over this, even though more is at stake for her than just her job.

She has a point – it’s not a good idea for either of us. But I can’t stay away from her. I want to do it again.

Before lunchtime, I find myself on the third floor, headed toward her desk. There she is staring at her laptop screen, and I watch her from a distance for a short while. As much as I don’t want to admit it, she’s getting to me. Getting under my skin, invading my thoughts. Consuming them, really.

She’s wearing green – a spring green – and her hair is pulled back in a ponytail. She’s wearing computer glasses, and the whole look gives off a sexy-librarian feel. Her top isn’t so low that it would be a problem in the workplace but I know what she looks like without a shirt. I can just picture her tits through her top.

When she looks up at me, I walk closer, as if I’ve been doing that all along.

“How are you doing?” I ask her, walking around her desk to look at her laptop screen. She’s not even on a social network or anything – so many employees are. She’s going through the suggested specs list that we got from the designers.

“Well, thank you,” she says.

“You can tell me if you need anything,” I say.

She nods. “I know. So far I’m alright.”

I nod, too. I want her to come to me, to lean on me, to ask me for advice and help. I want to spend more time with her alone. I don’t want to discuss work with her, I want to get her alone and get her naked, but I mean it when I tell her she can turn to me if she needs something.

“You haven’t had a look at my ideas for the project, yet,” she says.

I nod. “You’re right. I got a little distracted.”

She blushes.

“How about you give them to me, and I’ll go over them? Then we can talk about what you have.”

She thinks about it for a moment.

“Alright,” she says and reaches into her bag. She produces the file she had in my office last week, and I take it from her.

“I’ll let you know,” I say with a smile. Kylie nods, smiling, too.

I can’t figure out if she still wants me. I know that she liked the other day. Does she want to do it again? I hope she does – God knows I want to do it again. I want to fuck her brains out. But I’m not going to push for something she doesn’t want, and I don’t know where she stands after she told me on Friday that it was a mistake. Although, she didn’t say she didn’t want to do it again.

Women are complicated. They don’t say things straight up, and then men get blamed for misunderstanding. And things are even more complicated in this situation because there’s more at play here than just our obvious attraction. She has an end game. So do I. But mine is changing. I’m not sure I really want to fuck her over like I did before. I want to find out more. Get in her head and understand why she’s really out to get RidgeCo.

But even more than I want to get in her head, I want to get in her panties.

I can’t very well ask her if she’s willing to do it again out here in the open, where everyone else can hear us. The only way to find out is to get her alone, again. Soon.

I look down at the file again, thinking.

“You know what?” I say. “Let me go over this now. Can you free up some time to see me in my office, later this afternoon? Let’s say, three?”

Kylie swallows. She hesitates before she nods. I can’t tell what she’s thinking; I don’t know her well enough. I can decipher her O face, her eyes when there’s lust in them, but I don’t know Kylie as a person. And I’m surprised by how much I want to. She’s supposed to be the enemy, but I’m finding out quickly it’s not that simple.

“Three it is, then.”

As soon as I get her alone, I want to talk to her. I want to ask her how she feels. I want to know what she thinks of us doing it before, of us doing it again.

“You don’t have to go over it all today,” she says. “We can discuss it another time.”

I shake my head. “I don’t have client meetings, for a change. Focusing on the project will be nice. I get so little time to do it.”

She nods. “Okay, I guess that’s alright, then.”

Tanya walks to Kylie’s desk and gives her a stack of papers.

“This is the report you asked for,” she says. She glances at me and smiles. Kylie takes the papers from Tanya, and I watch them interact. Kylie is respectful and helpful, but she doesn’t grovel or make it look like Tanya is in charge. She knows what she’s doing, and her grasp of authority is attractive.

Whenever I see her, I’m reminded of how good she can be at what she does. She has so much potential; she can go far in this company. I don’t know why she was a receptionist for so long – she told me a bit about her struggles – and I’m glad I’ve pushed her into a position where she can earn more and get noticed. The money would be well-deserved, I think. If she didn’t have ulterior motives. I wonder for the millionth time why she’s really out to get the company because I think she could really be great here.

“Do you have the printout I asked you for?” Leon asks Kylie, walking to her desk. He glances at me but ignores me, otherwise.

Kylie nods, not responding to his brash approach. She hands him a piece of paper. Leon looks at it with a frown.

“Is this all of it?” he asks.

“It’s everything I could find on it,” she says. “Will you let me know if there’s anything else you need?”

Leon grunts. “You know I will.”

He sounds grumpy. I’m getting irritated with the way he’s talking to her, and I’m not even involved in the discussion. If it gets to her, she’s not showing it. She respects Leon as her superior, and she treats him with a respect I don’t even think he deserves. Maybe it’s because she’s still new, and she doesn’t have the liberty to be sarcastic or have an attitude toward Leon. I hope that will change because he can’t keep being such a dick about everything.

“Can I talk to you for a moment, Leon?” I ask.

He nods, and I step to the side, so we’re out of earshot from the others. Leon follows me. He folds his arms over his chest and places his feet wide apart. The stance is both defensive and arrogant.

“Why don’t you lay off Kylie, Leon?” I ask. “She’s working hard.”

Leon raises his eyebrows. “I’m doing my job. Are you suggesting I don’t?”

I shake my head. “I think you can be nicer about it.”

Leon smiles at me, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “Like you are.”

He can’t know anything, but my stomach turns, anyway.

“If you mean checking up on her to see if she needs help and mentoring her when she does, then yes, like I am.”

Leon shakes his head. “The two of you are alone an awful lot, don’t you think?”

“Did I mention I’m mentoring her? I remember saying it.”

Leon makes a face at me. I know he’s getting pissed, but so am I.

“I wish I had that much mentoring when I was new here,” Leon says.

I sigh. “That was before my time, Leon. I can’t do anything about what happened here before I was appointed CEO. I know what I can do now, and I’m doing it to the best of my ability. Please, don’t forget that I’m your superior. Your attitude needs revision.”

Leon laughs, and it’s one of those laughs that’s supposed to be a threat.

“I’ll back off from Jordan when I know that she’s capable of doing her job, but I don’t think a receptionist deserves a position as project manager on this, and I’m sticking to it. I believe you hired her because she has a pretty face and a good body.”

I am angry now.

“That’s degrading and insulting in every way,” I say. “I would be very careful about what I say next if I were you.”

My blood boils. I’m more than angry that Leon has reduced Kylie to someone intellectually incapable of doing her job, that he thinks I have it in me to look only at her body.

Leon makes a face at me, but he doesn’t say anything. Instead, he turns and walks away. But I swear I hear him mumble something under his breath that sounds like, “I know more than you think I do.”

He can’t mean he knows about Kylie. Can he?

When I look at Kylie again, she’s buried in her work. I don’t want to bother her. Especially as irritated as I am now. It’s better for me to retreat to my office and work through it. I need to calm down.

I walk to my office and sit down behind my desk. Leon rubs me up the wrong way, sometimes. I don’t know how to deal with him now – I don’t want to fire the guy with his wife being so sick, but he can’t keep doing this at the office. He undermines my authority, and he pisses me off.

Kylie actually deserves her position more than anyone else in the company, in spite of my inside knowledge about her plans to try to take down the company. Her résumé stood out from all the others long before I was aware of what she was up to.

And yes, I fucked her, and I think she’s the hottest thing I’ve ever seen, but I sure as shit didn’t hire her because I thought it would be easier to get into her panties.

Leon is way too upset over Kylie’s promotion. There’s something I can’t put my finger on, Something that’s not quite right.

I’m going to have to do something about him if he doesn’t reign in his bad attitude.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath, trying to calm down. I can’t let Leon work me up like this. I’m his boss, and he shouldn’t piss me off the way he does. I open the file I got from Kylie and start reading through her projections and ideas.

And again, I’m impressed by the way she thinks, by the way she approaches her work. She is technical about it, approaching the business side of it logically, but she has a creative flair that makes her work unique and I like it.

I am engrossed in her work, and as I page through it, my bad mood dissipates. I see a side of her here that I don’t know yet, and I like it.

When I’m done, I’m glad I asked her to come to me so soon. It’s not just because I want to see her as soon as possible, but because I want to talk to her about her work. Maybe, this time, I’ll get around to it.

I lean back in my chair and look around my office. I’ve had her everywhere in here I can except for the floor. I glance at the couch. I can almost still feel her lips around my cock. Just the thought of it makes me want it again. I harden, and I want her. I don’t think I’m ever going to not want her. She’s sexy and beautiful and intelligent. The whole package.

In spite of all the reasons I shouldn’t, I want her. I want her all to myself. In just a short while I’ll find out if she wants me, too.