Page 6 of Corporate Bondage

Chapter Three

(Keith)

“Fucking imbecile!” I glared at the name on the file my about-to-be-fired PA had brought me. Lindsay couldn’t do anything right. In times like these, I missed the hell out of Bryan, and it had nothing to do with sex. Bryan had been competent at his job. That he had a nice ass and was a good lay were just perks I had enjoyed. He was well-trained, always punctual, and didn’t have to be told twice what I needed. He had a dedication to doing things right that I rarely found in anyone else.

Since the first day she started, which was two weeks ago, Lindsay had been committing one error after the other. Because I couldn’t afford to lose another PA, especially in the middle of my hectic workload, I had tried to be patient. Patience wasn’t my strong suit, but I reasoned that maybe she was nervous, and as she settled in, her performance would improve.

I was not in the mood to be trifled with. I’d barely been able to contain myself from pouring the coffee down the front of her cleavage. How hard was it to get my preference? Just a little cream, no sugar, and definitely not black. I’d had enough black coffee in my youth when I couldn’t afford cream nor sugar. Because of her, I had missed a conference call, and now she had brought me the wrong file.

With a curse, I grabbed the phone and punched in the extension for the desk outside my office. It rang unanswered. Getting to my feet, I stalked to the door and flung it open. Lindsay was at her desk, cell phone to her ear, while she twirled a ringlet of dark curls around her index finger.

“Lindsay!” I barked at her, and she jumped, pulling her phone away from her ear as if I hadn’t seen it. “Didn’t you hear the phone ring just now? Get your ass in here.”

I left the door open and returned to my seat. She was right at my heels. “I’m so sorry, sir. I had an—”

“Save the excuses. Where the fuck is the notepad I bought you?” She was forever messing up things, so I had given her a notepad with a single instruction. Whenever I called her, she was not to come to me without it.

“Let me go get it, sir.” She turned and hurried from the office in her stilettos, exaggerating the sway of her hips. Her skirt was inappropriately short. They always were, and she always showed a generous amount of cleavage. The men at the office talked about her in crude terms, remarking on how lucky I was because she was definitely looking to get smashed. I was inclined to agree and had offered her up as fair game to anyone who wanted to try what she had to offer. She had nothing I wanted that wasn't work-related.

She returned to the office, one of her buttons undone. Now I wasn’t only able to see her cleavage but her lacy red bra as well. I grimaced at the sight. She was a beautiful woman with a great body, but she was just the wrong gender. That was the reason I had hired her. I had thought having a woman around would have made me less inclined to think about Bryan so much. Boy was I wrong. It had the opposite effect. I thought about him all the time and how my life would have been easier if I had made him stay. Maybe I would have had a better chance if I hadn’t knocked the shit out of him and forced him back to the city.

“I’m ready now, sir.” She took a seat across from me and crossed her legs high at the knees. Her skirt rode up her firm thighs, and I could almost see the underside of her ass cheek from the way she was sitting.

“I want you to put out a job announcement in the papers.”

She glanced up at me. “There’s a position that’s vacant here?”

I looked her dead in the eyes as I answered. “Yes, yours.”

She started to laugh which ended abruptly when she saw how serious I was. “But, sir—”

“You’re a lazy cunt, Lindsay,” I told her, not mincing words. “You haven’t earned the salary I’ve been paying you since you started here, and I’ve had enough of your shit. You just fucking ignored the call I just made to your desk!”

She leaned forward in the chair. “But sir, I’m so sorry. I can do better. Please. Just don’t fire me.”

“You’ve already had one strike too many.” I ran my fingers through my hair. “God only knows how I put up with you this long. That’s what I get for attempting to be decent. I’ll follow my gut from now on and screw trying to be fair.”

She rose to her feet and approached my desk. “But sir, I really can do this. I know I can.”

She was leaning forward so much I could see down her blouse. “For fuck’s sake.” I waved at her breasts. “Put those away. I’m not interested. I've not been interested for as far back as I can remember. I’m fucking gay. If it’s not boy pussy that you’re offering, I’m not interested.”

“I take it in the ass too,” she quipped as though she’d just discovered a new skill she could add to her résumé.

I scowled at her cluelessness. Did she think that it was the ass that mattered versus the full package? Even if it had been my latest obsession, Bryan’s ass, which had been slapped on her body, it wouldn’t have made much of a difference.

“Listen, you have two options,” I told her. “You can either send that vacancy announcement to the paper like I told you and at least have work for another couple of weeks until I find someone else. Or, you can leave, now.”

She caved in to the former just as I thought she would have. I sent her out and emailed her the criteria to be sent with the announcement. I wanted a photograph of each applicant. If someone blond, blue-eyed and male applied, I wanted to know. They would definitely get preference. It might have been silly to look for those qualities in a Personal Assistant, but except for Lindsay, most people could be trained to do what they were supposed to. If I could find another Personal Assistant like Bryan, brilliant at what he did at work and a bunny in the sheets, I would be contented to leave him alone.

Once Lindsay left, I sat and thought about what I was about to do next. It was probably petty to fuck with Bryan’s livelihood, but I didn’t want things to be any easier on him after he left. Besides, his current partner was a bloody billionaire. How much could it harm him not being able to get a job? He was always good at accepting things. His ass became pretty willing then.

I punched in the number for Ingram’s office. He and I knew each other well. We were from the same country club. We had also done business a time or two. This was going to be a lot easier than I’d thought.

“Eardley, you wouldn’t by chance be calling me about that charity function at the Goshen, are you?” Ingram asked, answering the call.

Fuck, I’d forgotten about that. I had planned to take Bryan with me, but now that was out of the question. “Thanks for reminding me about that, Bill,” I told him. “I had quite forgotten.”

“You better show up, or my wife will never forgive you.”

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