Page 5 of Daddy's Dirty Little Secret

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XANDER

Irode home with my shirt untucked and my dick still tingling from that release. Amelia was drunk, but not so bad she couldn’t consent, and I reeled over how bold she was. The dumb grin on my face wouldn’t go away, even when I stopped to consider how this might affect us at work.

Amelia was a model employee—never late to work, always met her deadlines, never caused work drama. She had even helped in ways most of my staff couldn’t, by helping me gain insight into our clients and their lives. Having been Laurence’s right-hand woman for a while in the beginning, she knew more about the company than anyone else on staff.

She was smart as a whip and apparently just as bold. I rubbed my face and still couldn’t shake the giddy feeling. Never in my life had a woman come onto me so strongly, and I enjoyed it very much.

But the nagging feeling of guilt that started low in my gut and snaked its way up into my chest and higher into my thoughts was pervasive. She was one of the most integral people on my team. She was the marketing manager, and with our need to boost sales, I couldn’t afford to screw up the team dynamic withsomething like this. It was a poor move on my part, giving in to my selfish desire, but how often is it that a woman throws herself at you? I had desires and needs, but I should’ve met them in a more ethical way.

David pulled the car around front at my place, and I slunk out. When I gave him Amelia’s address before leaving the office, I informed him to take his time, and he knew what that meant. He wasn’t ignorant of my ways, of which I was ashamed.“Always a playboy, never a partner,”my father would chide, but I didn’t really have time to get wrapped up in another dead-end relationship. I had my needs met in healthy ways with no desire to go through what I’d seen my father go through.

I’d heard his lectures about finding a woman to settle down with, but it wasn’t a realistic thing to hope for. Dad couldn’t even find a woman to stick around longer than a few months. Why should I try?

“Goodnight, sir,” David said as he rounded the car to shut the back door I climbed out of.

I nodded at him, ignoring the mess of my untucked shirt and sex-stained pants. I wondered what went through his head as he drove me home from wherever I was with whomever accompanied me in the back seat of my limo. It’d been ages since I entertained a woman, but tonight wasn’t an anomaly. Not something I was horribly proud of, but better than having my heart torn out.

As I stripped off and dove into bed, I thought about what to say to Amelia on Monday morning. I couldn’t let this go very long. If we said nothing it would develop into something awkward where we couldn’t look each other in the eye at work. Eventually, she would want to talk about her feelings, and I’d be the horrible monster who had no regard for her heart. It was better to nip it in the bud immediately before she put too much thought into it.

Life was easier when emotions stayed contained, so that was my goal. I would tell her first thing Monday morning that while I very much enjoyed the rush of excitement preceding what was probably the best orgasm I’d had in years, we had to be nothing more than boss and employee. And I hoped she took it easily.

The office was quiet,save for the low hum of the air conditioning and the occasional click of my keyboard as I tapped aimlessly on the keys. I wasn’t really typing anything productive. My mind was too occupied with the events of Saturday night. No matter how hard I tried to focus on the stack of papers in front of me, all I could think about was her. Amelia. Her flushed skin, her intoxicating scent, and how she felt pressed against me in the back of my car. It was reckless. It was stupid. But in that moment, it was everything.

Steam rose from the tiny hole in the plastic lid on my to-go coffee. I sat behind my desk with a stack of files in front of me of potential clients’ names collected from a local business fair. It was one of Amelia and Godwin’s ideas to have the team set up a booth and attend the two-day event for businesses in San Jose, but since it was last-minute and we were ill-prepared, all we had were a few outdated forms used by Laurence’s team for booth visitors to fill out. It meant me poring over paperwork when I should’ve been able to put an algorithm to work for me.

A tap on my door perked me up and I sat straighter, fixing my crooked tie as I called, “Yes?”

“Sir,” I heard before I saw Charity’s hazel eyes and warm complexion. She poked her head in and glanced at my phone. “Your intercom is muted again…” She bit her lip. “I have Ms. Johnson. She’s not on your calendar but she insisted you toldher to come to your office.” Charity was a great secretary but a little ditzy. Sometimes she missed the obvious and behaved more like a bouncer at a club than a personal aide.

“Let her in, thank you,” I said, gesturing. It was sweet that she wanted to protect my time while I was in my office, but sometimes it felt like she was nosy or overbearing.

The door creaked open, and I blinked, pushing aside the thoughts that threatened to consume me. Charity stepped in first, her usual cheerfulness a little subdued, before gesturing Amelia inside. She looked different today. A little more composed maybe, but there was something in her eyes—a slight unease—that made my stomach twist. She stepped in cautiously, her usual confident stride replaced by something a little more hesitant.

“Xander,” she greeted, voice soft, but there was an edge to it that said she wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this meeting.

“Amelia.” I stood from behind my desk, folding my arms across my chest, trying to maintain some semblance of control. It was difficult to keep a straight face as Charity stepped out. All I could think about was the minx who wormed her way into my pants. It made my dick pulse with desire for her. “Please, have a seat.”

She did as I asked, smoothing the front of her blouse nervously before sitting down. There was a moment of silence as I watched her, noticing how she fidgeted slightly in the chair, how her hands rested on her lap, and how her gaze kept flickering to the floor, avoiding mine.

“I just…I wanted to say I’m sorry,” she started, her voice tight with tension. “I was out of line Saturday night. I’ve thought about it all weekend, and I realize it was completely inappropriate. I shouldn’t have let things go as far as they did.” Her cheeks flushed a deeper shade of red as she continued, eyes fixed firmly on the ground. “It won’t happen again. I swear.”

I felt a pang of guilt deep inside me, but I pushed it down. This was the right thing to do. I had to keep my distance from her, especially now that I knew how I felt. It wasn’t just about the rules of being her boss—it was about the way I’d felt the night we’d…crossed that line. I couldn’t allow myself to be consumed by it.

“Amelia,” I said, my voice steady, though I couldn’t hide the undercurrent of regret. “Thank you for being honest. And thank you for keeping it between us. I’m grateful for that.” I paused, making sure she heard the sincerity in my words. “Look, we’re both adults here. I don’t want you to feel ashamed. You were drunk; I was drunk…We both made a mistake.”

She nodded quickly, her blush deepening as her eyes met mine, but this time they weren’t avoiding my gaze. They were searching, uncertain. “I just…I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable,” she whispered. “I don’t want you to think less of me.”

The way she looked at me, vulnerable and remorseful, made something inside me stir. It wasn’t just the guilt of what we’d done, but something else…something much harder to ignore. It was the way she seemed to be fighting back tears, and how she couldn’t seem to sit still. Her body language screamed that she was still shaken by the whole thing. I noticed the way her fingers played with the hem of her blouse and how her lips parted slightly as if she wanted to say something else but couldn’t find the right words.

I couldn’t lie to myself. I wanted her. And I wanted to take that guilt, that desire, and turn it into something real. But the impropriety of the whole thing gnawed at my insides. She was my employee, and knowing what I knew about relationships and how abruptly they were prone to ending, it was better to draw the line in the sand here.

“Don’t worry, Amelia,” I said, my voice softer now. “This doesn’t change anything between us. We’re fine. Just…let’s keep things professional moving forward. For both of us.”

Her lips parted as if she wanted to say something more, but then she bit down on them, her eyes flicking to the door as if she were considering making a hasty exit. I could practically feel the heat radiating off her, but I knew she was trying her hardest to pull back, to put a wall between us. She was trying to do the right thing, and I had to respect that. I had to do the same thing.

But God, she was still so beautiful. Her cheeks were flushed from embarrassment, but she still looked like an angel to me. I couldn’t help it—I studied her, lingering on the way her blouse clung to her curves, the way her hair framed her face. Every part of her seemed to beg for my attention, and for a moment, I couldn’t pull my eyes away. She looked…exquisite.

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