His Absolute Arrangement: A Scandalous Billionaire Love Story (Jessika, #1) (4 page)

And then I realized what was wrong.  The door to my office was open.

I'd closed it, hadn't I?  Maybe this wasn't a reason for alarm.  Clutching my water and rice cake snack bag in my hands, I rushed to the door.  Likely, Asher had come back after his meeting with Lucent and expected to find me working, but I hadn't been there.  If so, he would have left a note.  Or was he waiting for me?  It didn't really matter what happened, so long as...

Spinning into my office, I stood in the doorway, aghast.  Asher wasn't there; no one was there.  Someone had definitely been here, though.  My desk chair was thrown to the side, leaning against the wall, and my laptop was opened and powered up, the bright screen glaring at me.  Someone had left a document file open with some writing in bold, but none of that registered at the moment.  Strewn across my desk and flung from my shelves lay a myriad of scattered papers.

A stapler sat on the floor, stray staples crunched into the rug nearby.  My three-hole punch, scissors, and a couple of USB thumb drives lay on the desk, too.  Papers, office supplies, my laptop; all in complete disarray.

What was this?  Why would someone come into my office and rummage through my desk and belongings?

Stepping closer, I glanced back at the screen of my laptop.  Shocked, my hand clapped against my mouth.  Why would anyone...?

In bold, repeated constantly for an entire page, capitalized, was the word "WHORE."  Whomever had entered into my office apparently had a certain opinion of me, and they'd made it quite evident.

The odd thing was, I honestly had no idea who would have done that.  As far as I knew, no one in Landseer Enterprises hated me.  I doubted everyone adored me, either, but they gave me respect and treated me nice enough.  I had a few friends here, and others who I liked and found friendly and accommodating.  I...

I felt at home here in a lot of ways.  Comfortable and secure, cut away from the outside world that seemed to either hate me or ignore me.  Yes, I had friends outside of work, and I loved my family.  I went for coffee in the morning sometimes and the people at the coffee shop smiled and said good morning in an enthusiastic way.  I tried to be nice to everyone, because I knew how hard it was sometimes and how difficult life could be.  I knew I couldn't make everyone happy, but I tried to at least make the world around me happy.

And now someone hated me.  They'd invaded my office in Landseer Tower, ransacked my desk, thrown everything around, and left some hateful message on my computer.  I just stood there, staring at it, unsure what to do.  A mash of mixed emotions flared through me, ranging from nervous fear to bordering on tears and torturous anger.  Should I go find Asher and hope for comfort and security?  I knew I could work in his office for the rest of the day if I wanted, and maybe that was for the best.  Maybe I shouldn't even be here.  Maybe I...

Or I could find the man in charge of security and report this incident.  Would that help, though?  Could the security guards do anything in this situation?  Visions of police and fingerprinting, dusting the room, tracking the culprit; these things entered my mind, unbidden, roaring for release.

That wouldn't happen, though.  This was disturbing on multiple levels, but why should the police come here to find someone who had left some hate message on my computer and crashed through my desk.  They certainly hadn't done anything to the countless numbers of people who wrote hateful articles and left hateful comments in all sorts of newspapers, magazines, and articles, so I didn't see how this was any different.  A company issue, yes, but not something the police would bother with.

I didn't know if that was true or not, but some part of me wanted to call upon that determination and perseverance I'd felt before I left.  I didn't want to bring Asher into this, because that's exactly what the person who had done this would expect me to do.  Everyone thought me weak and helpless, not useful in my own right, just riding on the coattails of the name "Landseer" and not making my own way in life.

I was young, yes.  I'd graduated college only a few years ago.  Maybe I didn't have a huge amount of life experience, but I was trying.  I wanted more, wanted to do more and wanted to be more.  I had drive and willpower, and I did have Asher to help me.  It wasn't a bad thing to get help from someone.  Everyone needed help sometimes.

This, though, I needed to do on my own.  I would alert security, yes, but I needed to figure a few things out first.  Did the person come in and do this on a random whim, or was there some other reason for it?  Did they take anything?  I didn't know yet, but I should be able to find out easily enough.

Pulling my chair over, I began picking up everything on the floor and sorting it on my desk.  I put the stapler in the corner, and piled the scattered staples next to it just in case.  I doubted those would be useful, but I didn't really know.  My gaze wandered towards my open laptop, spotting the harsh words in bold on the screen.

I frowned, knowing I should keep the message up in order to show security later, but I didn't want to look at it.  Quickly, trying not to second guess myself and close the document, erase the words, I tipped shut my laptop and pushed it to the back of my desk.

It didn't matter if I closed the file and deleted it now, anyways; the memory of it would stay with me forever.

A
sher sat in his office, staring at his computer screen.  This was a necessary part of the day, but not necessarily an exciting one.  Scanning broadcasts, taking notes, sending out memos to various management teams and requesting further information.  Mostly, parts of it were more arduous than he preferred, but he liked seeing the end results.  One of his favorite activities in life was to visit the vacation resorts after recent changes had taken place so he could see firsthand what it looked like now.  It awed him in a way; amazed him and gave him a feeling of pride and accomplishment.

He had done that.  And, not just him, but his entire company.  The manual laborers, hotel staff, corporate office workers, management teams, onwards and upwards, everyone.  They worked together in order to make the company better, and Asher was at the head of it all.  He felt accomplished, yes, but he also knew he couldn't have done most of it without such an amazing team of people relying on him to give them direction and purpose.

Interrupting his thoughts and his work, the phone on his desk beeped.  He pushed a flashing red button and a second later a voice rang through the speakerphone system.

"Mr. Landseer?  Henry, head of security, wants to speak with you.  There's been an incident."

Asher furrowed his brow.  "Incident?  Thank you, Amber.  You can put him through."

"Yes, sir."  The call secretary's voice vanished, clicking away.  A handful of seconds later, the head of security's voice came through.

"Asher?  We're investigating now, but it's difficult to say what exactly happened.  Someone entered Mrs. Landseer's office and went through her desk.  As far as we know, everything is accounted for, but we're uncertain what that means.  They may have made copies of her files or done something else we haven't discovered yet.  Everything's fine, sir, so there's no need to—"

Asher cut him off.  "I'll be right there."

"Sir.  Asher.  Mr. Landseer.  Really, everything's fine.  There's nothing wrong with Mrs. Landseer and we're fully capable of... I just wanted to inform you, since Jessika is a little shaken up over it, but there's no cause for concern."

Asher let the man talk, but he hadn't been listening for awhile now.  He was already out of his office, striding down the halls, and heading to the elevator that would bring him to Jessika's office.

I
stood outside my office while the security team went through and checked everything just to be safe.  They wanted to doubly make sure everything was fine, and I really couldn't blame them.  I didn't expect to return to something like this, and as far as I knew nothing like that had happened to anyone else before, either.  It didn't seem like a thing that happened ever.  The fact that it did left me feeling lost and in a daze, as if I were dreaming.

I'd sorted through and checked my belongings to make sure I wasn't missing anything before I called Henry.  I didn't think the intruder had taken anything, but it was difficult to tell.  A few of my USB thumb drives were scattered on top of my desk, so it was possible the culprit had copied over information from one of them onto their own system.  For all I knew, they had all of my information now.  I mostly only had stories and research files saved, but I honestly couldn't remember what else I had on there.  Personal things, pictures, all of that.  I doubted it was anything someone would be interested in, but I needed to go through everything later just to make sure.

Henry's security team searched my office thoroughly, though.  They wanted to check for dangerous objects.  I almost laughed at that, but then my eyes widened and I clenched my jaw shut.  Was that even possible?  Bombs, or some other trap?  Did someone want to kill me?  Did they...?

Someone came up behind me and put their arms around my waist, pulling me close.  I jumped and struggled against them.  Oh God, I was being kidnapped now.  The invader had come back for me, destroying my office as a distraction, and now they were going to finish the job.

It was Asher, though.  He kissed my neck and embraced me tightly, holding me close to him.

I didn't know why he was here.  I had specifically told Henry not to tell Asher, because I didn't want to bother him with it.  I was kind of upset now.  I loved the fact that Asher stopped everything and came to me, though.

"Let's go somewhere else," Asher whispered into my ear.

"They're still checking everything," I said, unable to keep myself from staring at the entrance to my office.

Asher stepped to the side, still holding me, and cleared his throat.  The team of security guards peeked up.  Once they noticed the CEO of Landseer Enterprises standing there, holding me in his arms, they stood at full attention.

"Sir," one of them said.  "Mr. Landseer, we're doing everything within our grasp to make sure that Mrs. Landseer's office is safe.  We're going to take precautions to ascertain that this never happens again, either.  If you'd like, we can install security surveillance in the room, or some other countermeasures to intrusion, or—"

Asher nodded.  "Jessika and I will have to talk about it.  Finish up here and lock the room after.  She'll be using my office for the next few days."

"Asher, I don't—" I started to say.

He wouldn't budge on the matter.  Squeezing me lightly, something akin to a warning and a hug, he said, "Jessika, I understand how you feel, but we need to fix this.  I need to know what happened.  I don't want anything happening to you, either."

"It's fine," I said, speaking words even though I didn't believe them.  "Nothing happened.  It was just some trivial incident.  Not everyone likes me, and I knew that.  It's nothing to worry about.  Maybe I deserved it."  I said the last part in a hushed voice, staring at the ground.

Did I deserve it?  Just words, yes, but words could hurt sometimes.  Asher said to ignore them, to brush them off and treat them like nothing, but how could someone ignore it when popular opinion in the media and most of open society was that I was some sort of homewrecker.  A slut.  Whore.  The image of the computer screen, the word bold and repeated, over and over again, lay seared in my memory.

"Come," Asher said, pulling me along with him.  He was forceful, commanding, and yet I wanted to go, too.  I wanted to do whatever he said, because it was easier than thinking for myself right now.  It was easier than remembering pain and regret.

"We'll make sure to fix this," one of the security men said as Asher and I walked fast down the halls and away from my office.  "We'll find out who did this and make sure it doesn't happen again."

I wanted to believe them, but I didn't know who I should believe anymore.

T
hings happened.  Quickly.

You might find them odd, but I loved it.  I felt loved, wanted, appreciated.  I had felt lost and hurt before, but not now.

Yes, you might find it odd, you might find it abrupt, you might think it wrong of me.  Maybe you think I'm a whore.  A homewrecker.  A slut.  I don't care.  I didn't care.  I needed this so badly, because I needed to feel safe.

Asher brought me to the elevator, half dragging me down the halls and half leading me.  I rushed after him, my feet slipping on the rug as he pulled me forward.  I didn't fall, though.  He kept his hands around my waist, holding me tight, helping me and picking me back up whenever I almost lost my balance.

We arrived at the elevator and he slammed his hand on the button to go up.  The elevator dinged and the doors opened half a second later, almost as if it had been waiting for our arrival and knew that Asher wasn't in a patient mood at the moment.

We went in.  No one else was there.  Asher pushed the button to bring us to the floor of his office and the doors to the elevator closed slowly.

"Are you alright?" he asked me, looking into my eyes with demands and worry and concern.

"I... I'm fine, Asher.  Everything's fine.  It's just a little—"

He didn't let me finish.  I didn't even know what I was going to say to finish, but I didn't need to say anything anymore.  His lips pressed against mine and he kissed me hard.  Rough, demanding, forceful, he pushed all thought and worry from my mind, replacing it with a powerful sense of passion and need.

I stood there, stock still, uncertain, and then I kissed him back.  I latched onto his shoulders with my arms and grabbed onto the back of his neck with my hands.  I wore a skirt, but I didn't care, and when he cupped my ass hard in his hands, I let him.  He lifted me up and I wrapped my legs around his waist, and together we crashed against the corner of the elevator car.  He ground his crotch against mine, slick, soft dress pants pressing against my smooth skirt and the silk of my panties.