Dream Lover

Copyright © 2012 by Nicola Peterson

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Thank you to my husband Alan and my friends Wendy Miller and Sue for encouraging me to keep writing.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18

CHAPTER ONE

Quinn Morgan smoothed down her skirt and sighed, she was not looking forward to meeting her new boss, it was her own personal rule never to work directly for a man, any man and yet here she was going to work for one with a reputation for being something of a tyrant, a very moody tyrant. She had worked for Cordell and Smyth for just over six months, up until today she had been employed as the personal assistant to one of the female directors, Alana Patterson. They worked well together and both women were disappointed to be separated if only for a short while, Alana had tried her best to keep hold of her secretary, she was in her opinion the best in the company. Only problem was yesterday Alana had been told that the Chairman’s personal assistant had been badly hurt in a car accident and that her p.a. was to stand in for him until he was able to return to work, which was expected to be some months down the line, and no one argued with Maxwell Cordell and so had to let her go.

Although Quinn had not yet met Maxwell Cordell she had obviously heard of him, alas nothing good. His bad temper and abrupt manner were legendary throughout the company, rumour had it he hated women and only just tolerated men. ‘Great,’ she muttered when she was given instructions to report to him.

Quinn had made a few discrete enquires about Maxwell and beside that he worked hard, gave generously to charities she had been able to find out very little else about him. She had even searched the internet but all she could find out about him was how well his business was doing and one very dodgy photograph of him which she doubted she would recognise him from.

The Chairman’s office was located on the tenth floor, as Quinn stepped from the lift she couldn’t help but notice the deep thick sumptuous carpet under her feet. Even the atmosphere was different, a quiet expectant air hung over the wide corridor. As she made her way Quinn noticed there were only two doors, straight ahead of her the other on the right, her perfect eye sight told her that the Chairman’s office was directly ahead of her.

Praying she was not going to regret having to take this temporary position she quickened her step and stopped out side of the Chairman’s door. Taking one more deep breath she lifted her slim hand and knocked on the door to his office, waiting for a reply she heard a deep voice assuming he was inviting her to enter she did just that.

Quinn gasped loudly for a number of reasons, one Maxwell Cordell was devastatingly handsome, plus he had the most perfect body she had ever seen or could imagine. How did she know this? Well that was the reason why she gasped in the first place; he was standing dressed in just his boxer shorts and nothing else.

‘I told you to wait,’ he yelled at her snatching his pants from the back of his chair and pulling them quickly over his long muscular legs.

Quinn forced her chin up from her chest as she gaped at him and was already stumbling from the room and back out into the corridor, she slammed the door closed and buried her red face in her hands. She opened her eyes quickly again; she could picture his muscular body all too clearly with them closed. A sick sinking feeling invaded her slender body, just what on earth was he doing near naked in his office?

Suddenly the door was snatched open once again, this time thankfully her new boss was dressed ‘What do you want?’ he demanded angrily, his blue eyes flicked over her, while his long nimble fingers straightened up his tie.

‘I…sorry,’ she stammered stupidly, while her mind fumbled around for something sensible to say.

‘Spit it out woman, you barge in while I’m changing and now you don’t know why you’re even here in the first place,’ he snapped at her, ‘stop gawping like a gold fish what do you want?’ he demanded angrily.

Discreetly she wiped her unusually damp palm down the side of her skirt then held out her hand to him, ‘I’m Quinn Morgan your relief personal assistant,’ she said more confidently, then dropping her hand back to her side when he rudely ignored it.

‘What?’ he repeated, ‘you can’t be I was expecting a man,’ he informed her curtly. This was exactly why he never had a female p.a. they stuttered and stammered, licked their lips a lot while fluttering unnaturally long lashes at him.

‘Well I’m not a man,’ she snapped back at him. It was a common mistake people often thought her name was masculine, but once they had seen her it was not a mistake they made again.

Maxwell glared down into her face, ‘I do not have female secretaries,’ he shouted at her not realising Paul was the only male personal assistant who worked for his company.

‘There is no one else available, so it’s me or no one,’ she retorted quite forgetting just whom she was talking to.

Maxwell cursed loudly and colourfully before spinning on his heel back into his office. ‘Get in here,’ he yelled when he realised she was still standing where he had left her.

Only Quinn needed her job, for two pins she would have walked out there and then, swallowing her pride she walked slowly and sedately into his office. Resisting the urge to slam the door behind her she made her way to his vast desk. Quinn’s temper was at boiling point, she hated bad manners and this man had the worst she had come across in a long time, but if he thought for one moment she would not argue back he was in for a shock, even if he was the Chairman.

Maxwell sat behind the huge slab of mahogany rocking back and forth on his high backed leather chair; with his elbows resting on the arms he made a pyramid of his fingers resting his chin on the top. Narrowing his eyes at her he watched as she walked toward him, slow and unhurried which did nothing to improve his mood.

‘Let’s get a few ground rules laid down. If my door is closed don’t ever enter my office again before I invite you to, don’t ever be late. Don’t argue with me,’ he stopped to give a short humourless laugh and run his hands through his dark hair before going on to tell her, ‘You will find I am always right,’ he then carried on with his list of do’s and don’ts.

But Quinn wasn’t listening anymore, well not to the words, to his deep baritone voice definitely, looking at his stunningly handsome face and into his thickly lashed azure blue eyes certainly.

‘Do I make myself clear?’ he demanded.

‘Yes,’ she answered, ‘
oh heck what was he saying
?’ she thought when she realised he was looking at her with a strange expression on his handsome face.

He lifted one hand and pointed over her shoulder, ‘Your office is through there,’ he looked at his slim gold watch while he spoke, ‘you have five minutes to make yourself comfortable then get back in here and bring a pad and pen with you,’ he ordered her offhandedly.

Quinn only realised she was dismissed when he turned away, picked up his telephone and started punching numbers. Standing up once more she made her way toward the door he pointed to and into the relative calm of her own office.

Being the Chairman’s personal assistant certainly had its perks. The office was well appointed, no mass produced furniture in here, state of the art computer and fax machine sat on her desk behind which was a very comfortable looking high backed chair, not leather but very comfortable tweed material.

After a very quick look around the room she snatched up a pad and pen, remembering his instructions she knocked on the door and waited to be invited in, silence. So she knocked again, a little louder once again all she heard was silence. Quinn had just raised her hand to knock for a third time when the door was snatched open.

Maxwell Cordell glared at his new personal assistant, ‘I distinctly told you not to keep me waiting,’ he snapped at her as he turned away quickly striding back toward his desk.

Quinn followed not too closely behind, ‘I knocked twice you didn’t answer, after last time I wanted…’ she paused over her words so she didn’t stammer, the last thing she wanted was to let him know she was troubled by his shouting, ‘I wanted to be sure you were decent!’

Maxwell sat down heavily in his seat and glared at her, ‘Someone knocked coffee over me, I don’t normally walk around the office naked,’ he told her.

‘I should hope not!’ she gasped in alarm, while trying and failing not to recall the vision of him in just his shorts, but it was really difficult and for a moment her eyes rested on his broad chest.

Maxwell shook his dark head and looked down at his shirt front wondering what she was starring at. ‘I haven’t time for this, and we have a lot of work to do before I go to my meeting,’ he said with an exasperated sigh.

Over the next hour he spun off a list of information he needed putting together for his meeting later that morning, he reeled off his list so quickly she could hardly keep up with him, but determinedly did not ask him once to repeat himself. Armed with her list she dashed off to collect what he required, with fifteen minutes to spare everything was waiting on her desk neatly stacked in folders.

Tucking them safely under her arm she knocked on his door and walked in, ‘I think everything you requested is here,’ she laid them out on his desk and turned back toward her own office.

‘Sit,’ he demanded opening the top folder he flicked through the contents.

For just one second she was tempted to ask him to stop speaking to her as though she was his pet dog, quickly clamping her lips together she thought better of it and sat down without a word while thinking he could do with a lesson in manners.

While he was quickly looking through each of the folders she sat looking around his tastefully decorated office. When she looked back toward her boss he was no longer reading the file in his hands but studying her legs. As he looked up their eyes met, he looked straight into hers for a few long seconds until obscenely long thick dark lashes closed over his blue eyes.

‘Fine,’ he stood up quickly locking the files in his brief case. With a curt ‘I’ll see you tomorrow,’ he marched out of his room leaving her sat at his desk.

As he walked through the door she couldn’t help but turn to look at him, he was she decided bone achingly handsome, very tall, very broad but unfortunately had the manners of a skunk she decided as she stood up and went back to her own office.