Page 15 of Indecent Secrets

“That’s really great,” I said, my stomach churning. Yeah, I’d heard the rumors about the now-deceased Lawton. Didn’t matter to me what your sexuality was—older rich men were all the same. They’d take advantage of a pretty younger person either way.

But this guy sounded genuinely happy, so maybe he hadn’t been aware of any issues—or just hadn’t had a chance to run into them before Lawton passed away.

“I’m Leigh, by the way,” I said. It was always good, I’d found, to make friends with the people at the bottom of the ladder in a company.

He had to know my name from my badge, but he understood that I was offering friendship. “I’m Bill.”

“An old-fashioned name, I like it.”

Bill smiled, a little flustered. “Thanks.”

“I’ll see you around, Bill,” I said, making sure that I sounded only vaguely flirtatious to give myself plausible deniability.

It was always best not to come on too strong when flirting with men to get something out of them. Despite people almost always being willing to have sex and being open to flattery, if you laid it on too thick and too fast, people would get suspicious.

Why was a gorgeous woman flirting with them? Very few people were delusional enough to not have some kind of insecurity, or be aware that beautiful women didn’t usually blatantly flirt with them and offer them a good time.

No, it was better to keep suspicions low and stay more ‘friendly’ than ‘flirty’. I didn’t want people to think that I was sleeping around with anyone who’d give me the time of day. And while I was sure people would assume that Jack and I had a sexual relationship, I didn’t want them to realize I was the one influencing his disastrous choices.

It was going to be a hell of a tightrope to walk, but I had confidence in my persuasive abilities, if nothing else.

I rode the elevator up to his floor, adjusting my outfit. Unlike the blatantly tight dress I’d worn to the party, I wanted to be professional today. My skirt was a bit tight, but it came down to just over my knees, and I wore a looser blouse that didn’t show much of my cleavage. My hair was done up in a clip, and I had kept the makeup minimal, nothing dramatic.

While I didn’t mind being labeled as just a good pair of legs, I didn’t want to be so disdained that nobody would give me the time of day. I had to make other allies here to accomplish my goals, not just Jack.

The elevator dinged open and I took a deep breath before exiting. Okay. Showtime.

The floor was mostly open—no cubicles here—with large desks scattered about the floor and then glass-walled offices along the outer edge surrounding the middle space. I could see a hangout area with couches and a kitchenette with a coffee maker and a large fridge, as well as what looked like a conference room off to the side.

It wasn’t quite the same as what we saw in Silicon Valley, with its elaborate adult playgrounds for offices (and I meant that literally, not in a sexual way, with slides, ping-pong tables, and other elaborate games and toys for the employees to indulge in). But it was clear that Lawton Industries had decided they would try to mimic that new style with the whole ‘open floorplan’ thing and the elaborate kitchen setup.

Employees rushed around and spoke in hushed voices together, glancing around, clearly gossiping. I was sure there was a lot to talk about. Your CEO dies and leaves the whole thing to his hermit nephew? Yeah, people had to be worrying about their jobs.

I ignored everyone and made my way through the office, trying to find the one that belonged to Jack. It was pretty easy to find. Not only was it the biggest and along the back wall like you were approaching a throne of some kind, but it was also the one that had a bunch of men in suits crowding around it.

There was one woman, a few years older than I was with streaks of gray in her hair, sitting at a small desk taking notes. The secretary, most likely. But everyone else was a man.

This would be interesting.

I walked over and smiled as I rapped on the door. “Hi!”

Everyone turned to look at me. A lot of eyebrows flew up. But the only person whose reaction I cared about was Jack’s. He was leaning back against his desk and already looked exhausted. He was wearing a simple dark gray suit today, like he was trying to fit in and appear serious, which broke my heart just a little bit in an unexpected way. A man who had the style and flair to show up to a party in a colored pastel suit shouldn’t have to feel like he needed to tone himself down in order to fit in.

Well… hopefully what I was going to do would help him? Jack was nothing like what I’d expected. Maybe he would be happier with his uncle’s company dissolved, and he could go back to being a reclusive professor.

Or at least I could perhaps convince him of that.

Jack smiled when he saw me. “Leigh, so glad you’re here. Gentleman, this is my personal consultant. She’s done a lot of great work with helping entrepreneurs and first-time CEOs take their companies to the next level and I thought it would be wise to have her on my team as I take the reins on the company.”

I saw a few concerned glances exchanged among the assembled men. Did they not want Jack to succeed? And if so, why not?

“Thank you,” I said graciously to Jack. I walked over and stood next to him, then smiled at the assembled men. “And these are…?”

“Oh, of course.” Jack quickly introduced me to all of the executives that were gathered around. Some of them seemed glad that I was there, smiling as they shook my hand. But a couple of them—the head of the investment board, for one—had a sour pinch to their faces.

“Mr. Lawton,” the head of the investment board said. “Are you sure that you want an outside consultant? We’d all be happy to assist you…”

“I think having a lot of different voices is important, including outside voices,” Jack replied. “Getting that outside perspective. My uncle was very set in his ways but I think that injecting some new blood will be important to the company. We have to innovate or we’ll stagnate and fall behind.”

---