Page 5 of Midnight & Mergers
“Um, I don’t think I own anything fancy enough for even a black-tie affair at the moment. I’m in the process of moving, and I have packed everything in storage.” She crossed her legs again, but this time it was for lying. She hoped her face didn’t give away the thousands of thoughts now swimming in her head.
Is this guy for real? Does he want a personal secretary or a damned escort? I get there are company parties, but I shouldn’t be expected to go to all these things with him. Who does he think he is?
“Oh, you needn’t worry about providing your own gowns for this. I will see that my personal shopper handpicks some dresses on Fifth Ave for you. And they will all be charged to your corporate credit account. I will have Anne draw up your employment contract. Then at the same time you are signing your agreement, we can get the necessary information we will need for the corporate credit card.” He glanced at his calendar before continuing, “Are you available tomorrow at 10 am to go over and sign the paperwork? If not, I can have someone send over the paperwork to where you are staying.”
He clearly couldn’t help himself. The words just kept flowing from his mouth. All he seemed to want to do was get to know me on a personal level, and with each word he spouted, it sounded more like he wanted to dress me up and date me. There’s no way I’m a Barbie doll! But… I need this job. Fuck!
“I can just stop by tomorrow. No need to have someone drop the paperwork off. Besides, I’m staying at Club Quarters until my, uh, condo on Wallstreet is ready.”
She swallowed hard. She knew the ink wasn’t even dry on the lease agreement and background check she had just signed earlier. But since it was in upper Manhattan, she figured it would be in her best interest to at least mention she could understand the level of VIP he was discussing with her.
“Oh, I’ve heard great things about that development. There are a few that are just going on the market this fall. The contract for hire is more of a formality, and it’s got the usual nondisclosure agreements. Nothing you really need to worry about.”
“I’m sure that stopping by around 10 will be fine. I don’t want anyone to go through the trouble of stopping by Club Quarters.”
“That sounds fine. Tomorrow, then.” He said as he picked up his phone in the office and began to dial a number.
Teagan took that cue and began to stand up and extend her hand.
“Thank you, Mr. Bradley, for this opportunity.”
* * *
He wavedher off as he got on the phone. It was all he could muster because he couldn’t remember the last time a woman made his dick strain at the zipper of his trousers. Her hair was perfectly in place, she had gorgeous sienna skin, and her cheeks reddened a beautiful shade of rose every time he made eye contact with her. The woman crossed her legs as often as he locked his eyes on hers, probably because he knew his gaze lingered over her lips a little too often during the interview. The seemingly innocent gesture of shifting her weight in the seat gave him flashbacks of Sharon Stone. She was his childhood crush after watchingBasic Instinctfor the first time when he was 13. The movie had come out a couple of years before he’d turned 13. According to his parents, he wasn’t allowed to watch anything with an “R” rating. But that didn’t stop him from watching it with his buddies. Of course, the thought of this woman before him was making him want to jerk off, and that wasn’t something he’d thought to do since the days of Sharon Stone.
His parents were doting up until the point he became a full-fledged teen. By that point, they thought it best to ship him off to boarding school—his pureblood parents and what pleased them never seemed to co-inside with his own thoughts about family. His mother said he was going away to school because it was more about his constant mood swings and how she couldn’t handle them. His father? Well, he thought the boarding school would toughen Brooks up and build great character. Brooks didn’t care to leave. He hated being shipped to boarding school because he missed all of his friends in the neighborhood. But being able to watch any movie with any alcoholic beverage of his choice was one of the few perks he had while growing up away from home. Sadly, his father and mother were both right. He was building character, and he was prone to mood swings. The boarding school just made those traits worse when he was younger. It wasn’t until he was a senior in high school that he changed his tune—and not because his parents told him to. Nope. He did that on his own.
When the woman in front of him bit her lower lip a couple of times before answering him, he thought he was becoming completely unglued. Just the slight pucker of her lips made him want to get up from his desk and kiss her as hard and as passionately as she’d let him. The twinge in his belly as she smiled at him was almost foreign. Women and friends eluded him with each passing year and with each zero that he began adding to his paychecks as he divested his portfolio. In fact, the last time he ever had a meaningful relationship with anyone of the opposite sex was when he was a young teen in boarding school. Things were so much easier back then—even if he thought he got a raw deal with his loveless parents.
Women only liked him for his bank account, and at this point in his life, he didn’t need an adult dependent. He was far too successful to have some gold digger take his company away from him. It took him an entire decade to build it from the ground up, so he wasn’t about to piss it all away to marry some woman that would most likely divorce him the first chance she got. Sure, there were prenups, but Brooks didn’t even want to bother having the paperwork drawn up for the shallow woman at the galas he’d been attending over the years. He would never date anything that resembled his own mother.
He had been so disheartened that this was the second year he decided to completely swear off women as his New Year’s Resolution. And up until now, he’d been doing quite well with his celibacy—because no. Nope! He wasn’t going to expend any energy on tapping a woman with zero substance. He’d almost thought that his man parts didn’t work because he hadn’t felt the slightest attraction to anyone for a couple of years.
But this woman? She seemed so different from the ditzy women he met at the parties. It was making him want to break his resolution and ask her out. Her intelligence as she spoke alone made his dick hard—a major feat for any woman to do with this vampire. Many of the women he now knew had been married into money. And they weren’t pursuing any job other than coordinating an event for a charity they rarely knew little about. DamnedHousewivesshows made all of these women of today think the press would be impressed with the money they wanted to throw about for the actual parties. Forget about the charity! No—they just wanted their names spewed across social media. Many of them put on an event to get their husbands a tax break and cure their boredom in life. They all lacked the substance he seemed to find in the woman sitting before him, sweating as he grilled her. And if he was being honest, he enjoyed doing it because her flowery scent intensified as he fired off each question.
The sad part was he didn’t require an administrative assistant until after the first of the year. Most businesses slowed in December because companies focused on sales rather than acquisitions. But he really wanted someone intelligent enough to accompany him during all of the damned holiday parties. Last year they made him out to be the next Billionaire Buddhist Monk. He didn’t need a date or an escort this year, but he wanted one because he was tired of all of the women driveling at his feet. He didn’t need arm candy. He just wanted a colleague to come with him to carry on a conversation and be visible enough for the vultures to leave him alone. And he knew if he could make the events part of the job where this assistant would help plan and attend them as a strictly business affair, he could still maintain his celibacy. The problem was solved as far as he was concerned, and this woman fit the bill, which is why he jumped at the chance of hiring her.
But now all he had to do was convince himself that there was still a no vacancy sign up around his dick.
ChapterFour
“Just what kind of clause is this?” Teagan said as she stormed into his office, nostrils flaring.
At this point, she didn’t care if the Pope himself was in Brooks’s office. He wasn’t getting away with contracting her as his personal Barbie doll—no matter how gorgeous he was. Who did he think he was?
“Gentleman, please excuse me for one minute,” Brooks said to the men in the room before addressing her. “Miss Teagan Thompson is my new administrative assistant who starts tomorrow. Let me just handle a bit of her paperwork quickly.”
He led her to the door and closed it as soon as she walked through.
“What is it you need to have addressed?” His voice was in a matter-of-factly tone, his eyes fixed on hers.
“I thought this job would entail setting up your business schedule and writing up some spreadsheets. You didn’t say that I’d have to plan these parties that you are telling me are mandatory to attend. And what’s this ‘fraternizing’ bit? I mean—do you think I’d be the type of woman to fall in love with my boss just because I’m going to dinner parties with him? Sure, you’re hot and dressing me up like a Barbie doll, but God, get over yourself.” Her eyes widened, and she cupped her mouth. “I’m sorry. That came out wrong.” She muffled out the words through her hand. He gave her a half-smile as his eyes flicked to her hand.
“That was an interesting choice of words.” He chuckled before continuing. “Don’t worry. I won’t hold them against you. And as I explained to you yesterday, yes, I’d need you to accompany me to many gala affairs this holiday season. That will be part of your job this month. As far as fraternizing goes—that’s a pretty standard clause in any company contract. Granted—the placement of the wording may have been off, and I can understand your concerns. But I can assure you that I have no ill intentions. Just your standard contract.”
“Okay, but what is all of this other stuff? Why do you have to approve my wardrobe for these events?”
“Well, I’ll be paying for the dresses. Therefore, I’ll need to approve the garments to ensure they are suitable for the event.”
