Chapter 9
Ellison
“Wait, all of them signed?” Michael asked.
“Yep. All eighteen fucking investors are officially on board,” I said.
“L, that’s the entire fucking fiscal year. That’s our base operating cost plus the fucking luxury hotel in the Bahamas. Dude! Holy shit! I honestly didn’t think you’d pull that off.”
“What the hell do you think I do around here, klutz?” I asked. “And anyway, it really all came down to Charlie. She’s proven the promotion this company gave her, and she’s gonna stay there as long as she can stand it.”
“Well that’s good, it’s great really. So how did her presentation go?” he asked.
“It was good. She gave them every piece of information they needed and she even did these 3D images of the blueprints we’ve been bouncing back and forth. Then, she came up with this idea on the spot about the investors voting on which one they liked the best.”
“Oh, shit. She sprang a vote on you?” Mike asked.
“Yeah, and I didn’t hate it,” I said.
“Who are you and what have you done with Ellison James? You feelin’ alright?”
“I’m fine, just jetlagged. I’m not a hard ass, and I actually do shit around this company, unlike the impression you seem to have. Did you really think I wouldn’t have been able to close those fucking deals? I would’ve had them eating out of the palm of my hand.”
“I’m just givin’ you a hard time. Lighten up, L. Geez, that flight really kicked your ass,” he said.
Just then, Charlie came through the double doors of my office. She had the originally signed documents from all the investors notarized, and she set them down on my desk before her eyes hooked with mine.
“I faxed them all the copies of their notarized documents. These are the originals, alphabetized by their last names with their financial contributions as well as their stock incentives highlighted.”
“You know my secretary would’ve done all that, right?” I asked.
“She hasn’t been at her desk all day, Mr. James,” she said.
My dick twitched at the sound of my name dripping from her lips. Scenes of our night together flashed through my mind and I could’ve sworn I could still taste her on my lips. I leaned over and saw the empty desk of my secretary, then promptly picked up the phone and pressed the auto dial for her cellphone.
I was thankful when she picked up because that meant I could shoo Charlie out of the room. There was no way in hell I was spending any time around her other than what was absolutely necessary until I could wash our excursion from my mind. What I needed to do was get through my day without encountering her again, get my dick under control long enough to have a professional conversation with her, then get my dick plowing into another woman I could fixate on.
Because this was absolute bullshit.
I hung up the phone after talking to my secretary and I saw the smirk on Mike’s lips. I kept chastising myself for even having the thoughts about Charlie that were running through my head, and the more distracted I got, the more it registered with Mike.
“Take a deep breath. Her tits aren’t that glorious,” he said.
But, you haven’t drank from their pools like I have.
“It was rough, spending time with her like that in such close quarters. She pulled out these little flirtatious stunts I see women sharks do sometimes, and she had every fucking investor eating out of her damn hand.”
“Were you eating out of it?” he asked.
“She’s my employee. Off limits,” I said, lying.
“I know, I know,” Mike said. “No office relationships or some such shit. One day you’ll crack, and I’ll be ecstatic when I shake the hand of the woman who broke Ellison James.”
If only you knew she’d just walked into the room.
“How’s that leg comin’ along?” I asked.
“Itchy as fuck. My girlfriend’s fucking taken every single thing I had to stick down my cast and itch with. I’ve got nothing to help with it now.”
“You scratch it too much and you’ll break open the skin and get it infected,” I said.
“Sounds like you know from experience,” Mike noticed.
“And it was the fucking worst, so stop itching. And your girlfriend has a name. Use it or drop her if it makes you that uncomfortable to date someone long term.”
“Yeah, yeah. You stop gawking at the big tits in the office and I’ll give her a name,” he said.
Mike left me to my thoughts while he hobbled out on his crutches, and I knew I had to talk with Charlie. There would be gallons of tension between the two of us if we didn’t have some semblance of a conversation about what happened over the weekend. I picked up the phone and called down to her desk, and her voice fluttered over the phone in that sultry tone I remembered her using as she yelled my name to the ceiling.
I knew she was a screamer.
“Hello?” she asked.
“It’s me, Charlie,” I said.
“Well hello, Mr. James. To what do I owe this pleasure?”
“I was wondering if you’d be able to meet me somewhere tonight. We really should talk.”
“I agree. But, we probably shouldn’t meet where anyone might see us,” she said.
“What did you have in mind?”
“There’s a bar off an alleyway not too far from my place. It’s close enough to where you won’t feel obligated to walk me home, and no one in this company would ever be caught dead there.”
“That seedy, huh?” I asked.
“You’ve no idea. You might want to get your vaccinations up to date before tonight,” she said.
I chuckled over the phone and was instantly reminded of why she was entrancing in the first place. I cleared my throat, trying to bury my respect and admiration for her, and we ironed out a time to meet before I hung up the phone.
The entire day, the only thing I could think about was meeting up with her. My leg jiggled in excitement as I ironed out some building details over the phone with multiple contractors in the Bahamas. My mind was plagued with thoughts of her smile and laughter while I wrote memos and lists of things for my sick secretary to take care of when she got back in. I almost gave the florist the wrong fucking address when I went to send something to my secretary because I couldn’t get Charlie’s eyes out of my head.
But, when I put the phone down and went to go grab my bag, I couldn’t get the memory of the sweet taste of her pussy out of my mouth.
I decided to take a taxi to that part of town to give me time to find the bar. I’d already had a couple of drinks by the time 6 PM crept around, and my eyes started searching for her as the clock ticked nearer to our agreed time. My stomach stung with anticipation, waiting to catch a glimpse of her as she walked through the door.
But nothing could have prepared me for the breath that left my lungs when I finally laid eyes on her.
Her beautiful red hair was free from its typical business confines, billowing around her shoulders as she walked into the bar. She was in nothing but a gray t-shirt that fell off her shoulder and a pair of white-washed jeans that rounded out her ass, but she looked absolutely radiant even as she sat down in front of me.
“I see someone didn’t go home to change,” she said.
“Would you like anything to drink?” I asked.
“Drinks put us in this situation. I think I might want to stay away from alcohol when I’m with you,” she said.
“Fair enough.”
I sipped on my third drink while the two of us made small talk, but the more we delved into the conversation the less willing I was to talk with her about why we needed to meet in the first place.
“We can’t do this anymore,” I blurted out.
“I know,” she said. “What we did was incredibly unprofessional and it put you in a bind with your morals. Not only that, but it made me something I never wanted to be.”
“And what is that?” I asked.
“Someone who fucks her way to the top,” she said.
“You’re hardly that,” I said, snickering.
“Not everyone will see it that way if this were to get out. We can’t let it happen again.”
I was the one that was supposed to be having this conversation with her, and yet it somehow felt she was having it with me. I don’t recall a time when a woman had ever taken the reigns with me like this. When the fuck did she turn the tables on me?
Why the fuck did I suddenly feel like the woman in this scenario?
“Fine. Then this won’t happen again,” I said.
“Rumor around the office says you’re trying to find someone to groom as another shark to stand at your side.”
“I see Mike’s been talking to some people,” I said.
“I’d like to officially put my bid in for the position. You know, since you saw me in action over the weekend.”
“Consider your bid officially placed,” I said. “And remember, this didn’t happen, nor can it happen ever again.”
“I know,” she said, winking. “I got it.”
But honestly? I wasn’t sure I did. Her playful nature and her hot-ass body called to me unlike any other woman I’d ever come across. If I was going to groom her like I wanted to, then I was going to have to spend time with her. But, if she was this alluring to me in just a shirt and jeans, then there would never be a moment when she wasn’t.
There would never be a moment when I wouldn’t wanna bend her over my fucking desk and slather my paperwork in her scent.
“Are you picking up the tab, or am I?” she asked.
“You didn’t drink. Why the hell would you pick up the tab?” I asked.
But, the smirk on her face told me she was intentionally trying to throw me for a loop. She knocked her knuckles against the table before she got up and walked away, and my eyes locked onto her swinging ass and followed her all the way across the bar.
Nope, I didn’t believe my own fucking words one bit. And part of me hoped she didn’t believe hers either.
Why the fuck did she have to be my employee?