Chapter Eighteen
Jacob
Tonya and her PR team greeted me the next day at the office with their latest strategy plan. I could barely concentrate, because I was still thinking about yesterday’s spanking that I’d doled out to Vanessa when she’d been naughty. I needed to take this seriously, though, because if this latest rumor got out to the media, then that would be another blow to my company’s image. With all the auditing going on and the insider trading allegations floating around, that was the absolute last thing I needed.
The part that angered me the most was that someone was so willing to hurt me that they would use an innocent girl like Vanessa to do it. By throwing her under the bus in the media, they’d be setting her up for a rough time over the next few months—or even years—by dragging her name through the mud along with mine. I had to protect her from that.
I’d been thinking about it, and I was sure her theory about it being her father was correct. He could’ve easily had contact with Damon Schwartz, and the two had teamed up to get me to ‘admit’ to insider trading in order to further their own agendas. I’d worked way too fucking hard to build this company to let a bunch of rumors and blackmailers take me down, though, so if they thought that’d work, then good luck to them.
“So after we’ve done that, we need you to go on the Shaw Show. We’ve booked you a slot at two o’clock today. We’ll prep you with responses,” Tonya droned on.
I frowned. “You mean the radio show?”
“Yes,” she replied. “Believe it or not, a lot of people still listen to the radio. Usually while in their cars driving to and from places. Anyway, Simon Shaw can pretty much make or break someone’s reputation in the public eye. That’s why we’ve never bothered booking interviews with him before—simply didn’t need to, because you already had a good rep, and we didn’t need to risk him not taking a shine to you. But now we do. We need him to like you.”
“All right.”
She hesitated for a second before going on. “He doesn’t hold back, though. He can be quite….provocative. Don’t fall for it. Just stay calm.”
“I will.”
“Like I said, we have a fair idea of what he’ll say and ask, and we’ve written up a prep sheet for you to go through.”
“I’ll get onto that now, then.”
I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon in other business meetings, studying the radio show prep sheet in between whenever I had a spare moment, and soon it was nearly one-thirty. I headed downtown to the radio station where the Shaw Show was hosted, and by two o’clock, I was calmly sitting across from Simon Shaw himself, waiting for the show to begin.
The first three minutes was fine. Simon made a few risqué jokes about the world of the rich and the famous at my expense, and I laughed heartily, demonstrating my ability to not take myself too seriously. He also asked a few other general questions which were easy enough for me to answer, given that they were lighthearted in tone.
“But the real reason I wanted you on my show today…” Simon began before filling the air with the silence of a dramatic pause. “There’s been some pretty odd rumors circulating about you, Mr. Baldwin.”
I gritted my teeth. It’d only been a matter of time before the insider trading allegations were brought up, but I had to stay calm and deny, deny, deny. After all, it wasn’t true. I just had to make sure I didn’t sound too defensive, because that was the number one way to make people suspicious.
I silently prepared and rehearsed my answer. Glad you asked that, Simon. A lot of silly rumors have been going around concerning fraud within my company, but it’s just that—rumors. Our friends at the SEC are running some checks just to make sure, and as soon as they clear us, as I know they will, this’ll all be water under the bridge.
“Just this morning, I received an interesting email,” Simon began. “About you. It says you’re having some sort of clandestine affair with a teenage girl. One who works for you, no less, sparking questions about how you treat your employees and whether or not you’re taking advantage of them…perhaps even making them feel as if they must sleep with you in order to get ahead. How do you respond to all that?”
My eyebrows shot up, and I stiffened. Shit, that was the question? I hadn’t prepped for this at all—as far as my PR team and I knew, this particular rumor hadn’t actually come out to the public yet, so we hadn’t been worried about Simon asking about it. Apparently someone had tipped him off.
Fuck, Schwartz and his crony—Vanessa’s father, or whoever it was—were seriously digging their heels in to go after me now. Pricks.
“Mr. Baldwin, you’ve gone quiet,” Simon said with a gleeful tone in his voice. “Are you planning on answering today?”
I cleared my throat. “Sorry. I was just shocked by your question because I didn’t think it could possibly be serious.”
“Why’s that?”
“Well, aside from the fact that my private life is no one’s business but mine, it’s ridiculous that anyone would accuse me of forcing anyone into a sexual relationship with me to get ahead at work. Anyone who works for me knows I’m a fair boss. I would never imply to anyone that they had to sleep with me to keep their job or secure a promotion. Nothing like that. Never have. Never will.”
I took a deep breath when I finished speaking. I’d managed to skirt around the issue of whether or not I was actually sleeping with an employee by focusing on just one main part of the question—whether or not I was forcing anyone to sleep with me in order to get ahead in the workplace.
Simon didn’t fall for that, unfortunately.
“That’s all well and good, but are you sleeping with an eighteen-year-old girl or not?” he asked bluntly.
“No.” I hated having to lie about my relationship with Vanessa, but like I said earlier, I had to protect her from all this media bullshit. “Whoever emailed you and said that is obviously some sort of jealous competitor of mine.”
“Fair enough. Thanks for answering. I’ve gotta say, you strike me as the kind of man who can get any woman in the world, Mr. Baldwin. Women your own age, for sure. I didn’t think the call I received had much merit, but I wanted to be sure. And if it was true…well, that would’ve made a nice scandal, wouldn’t it?”
My pulse began to speed up. I hated this; hated lying to everyone, especially people who apparently respected me.
What was even so bad about me being with Vanessa, anyway? If she was just two years older, then no one would have a problem, because she wouldn’t be a teenager. Maybe I should’ve just come out and said it to Simon; ripped the Band-Aid off and admitted to our relationship. But like Tonya said, the last thing my company needed was a scandal right now, and whether I liked it or not, people hated the idea of a massive age gap in a romantic relationship.
The rest of the interview went smoothly, and by the end, I felt relaxed again. It seemed to have gone well, and Simon winked and shook my hand when it was over.
“Good to meet you, Mr. Baldwin,” he said. “Thanks for your…honesty.”
I forced a smile, suddenly on high alert again. Was it just me or did he hesitate slightly before saying ‘honesty’? If so, why? Was he being sarcastic?
I looked right at him, and I was pleased to see his smile seemed genuine. I was just being paranoid, that was all. I breathed a sigh of relief, grinned back at him and then thanked him for his time before bidding him goodbye.
The rest of the day dragged by back at the office, and by the time six o’clock rolled around, I was exhausted. The thought of Vanessa waiting for me at home perked me right up again, though. Tommy was out at a sleepover tonight—he had a lot of friends, so they were quite frequent—so it would just be me and my little girl. I drove fast, my cock straining against my pants, stiff at the thought of fucking Vanessa’s tight, pink little snatch.
I wondered what she was doing right at this moment. No doubt she was just as horny as me after spending a whole day apart from me. No doubt she’d touched herself like a naughty little thing already. No doubt I’d find her cotton panties soaked with her juices.
When I arrived home, I didn’t find Vanessa in the study or lounge room like I thought I might. She wasn’t in her bedroom, either. I hunted around before locating her in one of the house’s biggest bathrooms, in the huge claw-footed tub that sat in the middle of the room. She was covered in soapy suds as she reclined in there, and I arched a brow as I strode in.
“What are you doing, young lady?”
She sat up, and I saw her stiff pink nipples as some of the bubbles slid off her chest. Fuck, she always made me so hard.
“I made some cookies earlier, for Tommy to have when he gets home from his sleepover tomorrow,” she said. “And I got covered in flour. I hate being dirty, so I decided to use the big bath.”
“Hate being dirty, huh?” I growled, crouching next to the tub and flicking one nipple. “Something tells me that’s not entirely true. But how about you let me clean you, dirty girl?”
She nodded, smiling shyly. “Yes. Thank you, daddy.”
Christ, every time she called me that, it felt like a lightning bolt went straight from my cock to my heart. I loved it.
I grabbed a nearby loofah and squeezed some bath gel onto it. “Lift your arms, sweetie,” I said.
Vanessa did as I said, and I washed her underarms, sides, and back before slowly massaging her chest with the loofah. Her hair was clipped back to stop it from getting wet, and I gently pulled on a stray blonde strand with my free hand.
“Maybe I can wash your hair as well next time, honey.”
“I’d like that,” she replied before letting out a soft moan as my hand massaged lower with the loofah. “Oh…that’s ticklish.”
“Ticklish in a good way?”
“Yes.”
I pinched her left nipple as I traveled even lower with the soapy loofah, and she giggled.
“Turn over,” I said. “Let me wash you from behind. Dirty girl.”
She did as I said, turning over in the bath so that she was on her hands and knees. The perfect pink slit of her pussy was just visible above the white foam of the bubbles, and I gently trailed a finger down it, letting my thumb rub her clit for just a few teasing seconds. She closed her eyes and moaned, tipping her head back.
One finger went further up, gently rubbing the pucker of her asshole. Vanessa jerked forward in surprise, but she immediately calmed down and let out another moan as I kept rubbing the outside of the tight hole.
“There you go,” I said, pulling back. “You’re all clean. Good girl.”
She looked up at me, her eyes wide. Obviously, she’d been expecting more from me.
“What’s wrong, sweetie?” I asked, playing dumb for a moment.
She turned back over in the bath, reclining in the warm bubbles. “Nothing, daddy. I just thought you might wash me for longer, that’s all.”
“Well, you’re already clean, and I had a better idea.”
She raised her eyebrows, widening her big blue eyes. “What is it?”
“Do you like bath toys, Vanessa?” I asked.
She nodded, her interest piqued. “Yes. I used to have bubble baths when I was a kid, and I always played with my toy ducks. Other things, too.”
“These toys aren’t exactly ducks, but I’m sure you’ll like them anyway,” I said, keeping a straight face. “Give me a moment. I’ll go get them…”