Page 3 of Tap In

Jacobia sat there with her mouth slightly agape. “Wait, tell me your fucking secret! I wanna know how to get an extra twenty K from my boss.”

When I glanced over my shoulder, she had a knowing smile on her face. I turned to face her. “The secret is don’t be a punk bitch. That man is a complete asshole. I don’t know if Numen is an alternate personality of his, but Patrick Chance Broughton is an asshole.”

Jacobia tilted her head. “That doesn’t seem right.” She sat there pondering for a moment before her eyes stretched. “You were a bitch to his domineering ass, weren’t you? Oh, girlie, you have no idea what you just did.” Now she was walking toward me. When she got into my space, she looked at me with a menacing glare before she said, “Joston is having a party this weekend, and we’re going.”

I stood there frozen as she walked past me. My thoughts were going a thousand miles per second. What the hell did she mean we were going to Joston’s party this weekend!

I recognizedher the second she stepped foot into my office. She was sexier in this light of day. There were mixed emotions about having her in my office because I made it a practice not to fuck my employees. Technically, she wasn’t my employee when we fucked, or was she?

I tapped on my mouse to go to the personnel portal. It was after eight o’clock in the evening and I was still in the office. I had been in Europe on business and a little pleasure. The sex club scene over there was even more interesting than the one here in the states. Joston also had a heavy foot in the scene there as well. My first day back in the office after a week off was tedious for me. With the addition of a woman who I knew every crevice of her body, it was far more. Her alpha personality was something that I was not prepared for.

Once I got to the file to see her onboarding date, I noticed that she was onboarded the Thursday before we met, but her official start date was today. There were times when Marla would put the start date as the same day a person was onboarded. She used to do that because at one time you had to be with the company for a calendar month before your benefits kicked in. Since that policy changed to benefits on the start date, there was no reason to predate any longer.

When I came into the office, I knew that there would be a new executive assistant. The last bunch of assistants that Marla had hired were idiots. There was nothing that I despised more than stupid people. There were basic tasks that they couldn’t accomplish. It was a fact that they were technically Marla’s assistants; however, she rarely used them. They sat in their offices twiddling their thumbs. I’d walked in on one of them filing their nails once.

That was when I started to put them to work. Most of them folded after the first week and didn’t return for the second. When I heard her previous title, I surmised that Marla decided to hire someone who was overqualified with the hopes that they would do a better job. When she told me that Lark came highly recommended by Jacobia Christianson, I wanted to burst into laughter because her and my cousin, Joston, were with the shits I saw.

I was surprised that she didn’t recognize me. Once she laid out thatgallivanting in Englandline, I knew I would go to her smart ass. She presented herself as a much more submissive woman when we were in Vegas. That was to be expected since she was new to the scene and needed guidance. When I sent her that email of tasks and the quip about her tapping out, I just knew she would buckle. Most of the tasks that I gave her were personal, which was against my grain, but I needed her out of the office to get myself together. Never did I think that she would complete all of those tasks before the end of the workday.

“Bro, you got to tell me something. What’s up with you and Lark?” Travis walked into my office with his whiskey carafe and two glasses.Good job! I need that!

Although Travis and I had been friends for years, he was not privy to my alternative lifestyle. There was a separation that I wanted to keep between myself and the people that I worked with. My listing in the company was senior vice president, but it was known that I was the acting president. My father had plans to step down very soon.

I waited for him to pour the glasses and give me one before I spoke. “There’s nothing up with me and Lark. She’s the new assistant and I’m treating her as such.”

He sat back in the seat, arched a brow, then took a sip of his drink. We sat there in silence as we drank our whiskey. When his glass was halfway down, he broke the silence. “Chance, I know you. I know you well enough to know that if any other person in the office talked to you like Lark did today, you would have put them out on their ass with no thought. You fired the last assistant because she called you Patrick.”

My head bucked back before I leaned forward on my desk. “I told that stupid ass girl to call me Chance or Mr. Broughton. I gave the ditzy girl two options, yet she chose to call me Patrick, which was neither. If she couldn’t follow simple instruction as to what to call me, do you really think that I would trust her with my company?”

“That’s my point. You let that girl go because she called you Patrick, which is still your damn name. Lark called you an asshole, an entitled prick, and spoiled. Her ass straight up dismissed the hell out of you at every turn,” he said with a chuckle. “On top of all of that, she was in your house looking around like Nancy Drew, and you didn’t say anything. You know that she knew there were cameras because she looked up into them at times with a damn smile. You’ve fired people for way less, yet you didn’t fire her.

“No, you gave her a raise, company Range, credit card, and cell phone. Tell me. Where in the hell does Patrick Chance Broughton do that at, man?”

Yeah, she did all of that and I not only met but surpassed all her demands. “I do it now. The fact is that she’s overqualified. Initially, I thought that would work against me, but because of her previous position, it clearly made her a master at prioritization and delegation. I gave her all of those tasks that I would normally give my housekeeper, to see how she would handle them. That woman sat in my house and got all of them completed with a call or click of a button. What do you think any of those other women that Marla previously hired would have done?”

I was extremely impressed with her delegation of the tasks. Yes, I was annoyed as hell for some reason that she didn’t fail but impressed that she lived up to the boss that she presented to me today. A part of me wanted to find a damn flaw in this perfect ass woman. When she tapped out in Vegas, I didn’t see that as a flaw. I saw it as a plus because I knew how I gave it up. She was new to the life, so if she had been able to take everything that I gave up, I would have side-eyed the hell out of her.

A lot of times people who knew nothing about my lifestyle assumed that everyone was in it to be loose or had an issue with commitment. That was not the case at all for everyone. I had no issue with commitment, and when I found the woman that was meant for me, sex clubs would be no more. I was into sex clubs because it fed my sexual desire while I was single. It was one of the safest ways to have sex rather than meeting random ass girls with messed up hidden agendas. When the woman who would be my forever came along, then she would be all I needed. It took the right woman to be with a man that had a past like I did.

Travis ticked his head from side to side. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. They would have tried to get it all done themselves. I still think something is up with y’all two. All that shit you said sounds good, but something tells me that it’s deeper than that.” He gulped down the rest of his drink before he stood. “Time is going to show, bro.”

I gave him no reaction, emotion, or insight into anything. Yeah, it was deeper than that, but I wasn’t even sure how deep this shit might get. Hell, I thought that her smart mouth would turn me off, but it seemed to make me want her even more. When I called my father about her, he thought it was comical that there was a woman who wasn’t intimidated by me.

After Travis left my office, I went back to what I was doing before he came in. Marla always left the office no later than five thirty because she had a three-year-old daughter in daycare. Once I knew that I was the only one in the office, I pressed Joston’s speed dial number before I sat back in my seat again.

“What’s up, Cuzzo?”Joston sounded like he was laid back somewhere chilling. That was like him though. He made millions from playing poker, his sex clubs, liquor endorsements, and other businesses that he had around Charleston, Vegas, as well as Phoenix. For the most part, he did live a very chill life.

I was silent for a beat.“So, you weren’t going to tell me that Jacobia’s best friend that I met at your party was the same person that she suggested for the executive assistant position at my company? Miss me with you didn’t know too.”

I went to Joston a while ago with my frustration about these dumb assistants that Marla continued to hire. He suggested that I have Marla reach out to Jacobia to leverage her network. That was what I did and here we now were. I knew that he knew exactly who she was, because regardless of how much they both pushed back, he and Jacobia were best friends who were in love.

Joston chortled.“So, how did you and Miss Lark get along today? Yeah, I knew that she was the person that was going to be working with you. No, I had no idea that you would like and smash the girl into a tap out. That was on you.”

“You didn’t think that you should have told me after I told you that we smashed? She walked in my office, and I almost lost my damn mind. Yo, her mout’ reckless as hell too! For a second, I thought I was ga box her off.”I couldn’t help but chortle myself.

Joston joined me in my laughter.Yeah, you must have lost your mind. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard you let the geechie slip out of you. What do you mean by her mouth is reckless? Did she recognize you?”

“Nah, she didn’t but that wasn’t surprising. You know they keep the lights low as hell and the alcohol in the drinks high. Plus, it was her first time there, so she was probably overwhelmed. I sent her an email of tasks and told her not to tap out again, but she still didn’t say anything about it.”

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