Sweet Surrendering (8 page)

“Have you narrowed down your candidates for assistant yet?” Dad said when he stopped by my desk the next morning. He usually tried to see me at least once during the day and sometimes we had lunch together.

I’d been so busy trying to put out fires and rearrange a meeting that had already been postponed twice that I hadn’t had a chance to even think about it.

“I will this afternoon.”

“I heard you had a very enthusiastic fellow that came highly recommended.” I looked up from my exploding inbox and blinked at him a few times.

“A young man by the name of Lucas Blaine?” How had he found out about this guy? Probably Mrs. Andrews.

“Oh?” I pretended I wasn’t super interested.

“I must say he doesn’t seem like the kind of boy to be interested in this type of position, but maybe he’s been looking to make his mark here and start moving up. He seems like a valuable asset. Something tells me that he’s going places. Anyway, I don’t want to tell you what to do, but I think he’d do really well here. Mrs. Andrews was also very impressed with him.” My phone rang, but I ignored it.

“Well, I haven’t made my decision yet, and I don’t think he would . . . fit well.” Really? That was all I could come up with? It wasn’t like I could tell Dad that I had amazing one-night-stand sex and I didn’t think I could ever look him in the face as my employee.

“Well, just something to consider. Not that I’m telling you what to do. Go with your gut. Coffee this afternoon?”

I quickly scanned my schedule.

“No can do. I’m booked today. Tomorrow?”

“It’s a date.” He looked around before he gave me a kiss on the top of my head.

“Dad, stop,” I said, smiling as he chuckled and walked back to his office.

I finally had a moment that afternoon to look over the applications and nothing jumped out at me until I got to Lucas’ résumé. Holy Hell. He was only twenty-five and he had a record that would make someone nearly twice his age look good. Valedictorian, Magna Cum Laude, charity work, academic honors, athletic honors, awards from every job he’d ever had. Jesus. I was beginning to feel inadequate. His references were all from prestigious companies as well, including from our biggest competitor.

It was all . . . too perfect.

Yes, I know how that sounded, but I needed a reason not to hire this guy and other than the sex, this was all I had.

Plus, I knew for a fact that people pad their résumés and I wouldn’t put it past him. Maybe a little call to some of his references would clear that up.

I really didn’t have time to do this, but I was going to do it anyway. I wanted the satisfaction of having a good reason (other than the sex) for saying no to this guy. Because really, he was the best candidate by a long shot.

I was picking up the phone to call the first one when my cell phone started dinging. Damn. I’d completely forgotten about the monthly meeting with the board of directors. Fantastic. I groaned inwardly and was glad I’d worn my absolute highest and shiniest black pumps. They definitely weren’t the kind of shoes you could reasonably run in, or even walk briskly, but I didn’t really care. I was a bitch on heels.

I ducked into the ladies’ room to make sure I looked good, hair smooth, shirt tucked into my gray pinstriped pencil skirt and deodorant still working.

Check, check, check. I took one breath and grabbed my notebook as I headed to the boardroom.

Forty minutes later, I was trying to keep my attention on the meeting while everyone argued about which pens we should order for the company. These ones wrote better but were $.02 cents more expensive than these ones. I swear, they could turn this into a marathon meeting if they wanted to.

They finally settled on the more expensive ones and that was the final item on the agenda. About time. We were dismissed, but I was accosted by Hal Marksman before I could make my escape. Hal was the oldest member of the board, and had the most clout (and the most money). Usually, if he decided something, there would be a quick battle and then everyone else would change his or her minds and vote in his favor. He was also not my biggest fan.

“Miss Clarke?” Just his voice made me want to cringe and roll my eyes. Why was it that I felt like a teenager again when he talked to me? A stupid, ignorant teenager.

“Yes, Mr. Marksman, how are you?” I plastered a sweet smile on my face and pretended to give a damn. Kissing the collective asses of the members of the board is one of the less pleasant parts of my job.

“Doing well, doing well.” He nodded as he said it, but didn’t ask how I was. Jerk. I kept my smile in place and begged him with my mind to make this quick. Everyone else was milling around, fighting over the last of the coffee and pastries.

“I hear that you’re hiring a new secretary.” Obviously. He’d been at Sal’s retirement party.

“I am,” I said and waited for him to get to the damn point. He stroked the front of his shirt, smoothing it over his potbelly.

“Well, I happen to know that there is a young and very eager fellow named Lucas Blaine that has applied and I strongly suggest that you hire him.”

Was he fucking serious? How the hell did he know about Lucas?

WHO WAS THIS LUCAS BLAINE AND WHY WOULDN’T HE LEAVE ME ALONE?

“Oh,” I said, because, hell.

“I’ve heard about him from your father and if I could hire him myself, I would. I’m positively jealous of you.” He chuckled and I laughed as well, using my patented “polite fake laugh.”

“I, um, I’m just a little flummoxed by your interest in him.” Actually, I was a lot flummoxed.

Hal leaned in, as if to share a confidence. Like everyone wasn’t listening.

“We’ve been trying to get him away from . . . the company that shall not be named, for years now. I don’t know why he left them, but we want him, and this is the best way to get him here. Start him out easy and then we can slide him right where we want him. You can put in a good word for him with Walter, and before you know it, we’ll have him on our side, working for us.” God, some of that sounded dirty, and I had to fight the urge to laugh. I’d slid him right where I wanted him on Saturday, but I was pretty sure Hal wasn’t thinking about the same thing.

“This company needs him, Miss Clarke.” Now it was my turn to talk again. “And working with you is the best place.”

“I’ll consider him,” I said, knowing that it was already a done deal. What the board wanted, the board got.

“You need to do what’s best for you, but remember that the needs of the many overpower the needs of the few.” Oh my God. He was using Spock Logic on me and he probably didn’t even know it. I stifled another laugh as a cough and nodded and tried and stop myself from telling him to live long and prosper as he gave me one last hard look before he went to take the Danish that someone has saved for him.

Dad gave me a look and then followed me back to my office.

“What was that about?”

“Oh nothing, he just ‘strongly suggested’ that I hire Lucas as my assistant and by ‘strongly suggested’ I mean he said I had to because the company needs him.” I sat down in my chair in a huff and pinched the bridge of my nose with my hand. This day needed to be over two hours ago.

“Yes, Hal and I had a chat about him, and I have to agree with him. There’s no one else that’s so overqualified. We would be lucky to have him.” Lucas Blaine should have changed his name to Jesus Christ, because everyone seemed to be worshipping him. What I didn’t get was why he wanted this dinky little assistant job, if he was qualified, and he obviously didn’t need money. It just wasn’t adding up.

Dad interrupted my wonderings. “Unless you have any overwhelming reasons not to hire him?” Other than the fact that I’d slept with him?

“None at all,” I said with another smile that made my teeth hurt.

“Good. I’ll be glad to have someone to pick up the slack for you. You’re working too hard again.” Dad always thought I was working too hard because I was still his little princess and I always would be. I also couldn’t say no to him.

“I’m fine. I’ll just check his references and call him with the good news.” I would rather swallow five very large and venomous spiders than call Lucas and tell him he’d gotten the job. I could ask Mrs. Andrews to do it for me, but that would have made me look like a coward. I had to do this for the good of the company. My company.

Mr. Craig, one of the other Vice Presidents who also had a billion other titles, was waiting for me when I got back to my office. I wasn’t in the best mood, and I just gave him a terse nod as I walked back into my office. Of course he followed me in.

“Can I help you?”

“Oh, no. I was just wondering how the meeting went.” He had been curiously absent, but Mr. Craig wasn’t a big fan of meetings. He liked to spend as much company time on the golf course wooing clients as he could. He wasn’t a bad guy, just lazy.

“We went with the fancy pens. Anything else is in the minutes they send around.” Somehow, files had started multiplying on my desk like rabbits.

“Oh well. I just wanted to check in.” Why was he checking in WITH ME? He snapped his fingers as if he had just remembered something.

“Could you let Walter know I need to leave early today? I have an appointment with my acupuncturist. My sciatica’s been acting up,” he said, holding his back and cringing in a comical way. Yeah, maybe you should stop playing so much fucking golf.

I was in rare form due to the Lucas Blaine situation. I might have also been PMS-ing. And, it wasn’t my freaking job to tell my dad that he had to leave early. Grow a pair and do it yourself. But I didn’t tell him to do that. Instead, I said, “sure, I’ll tell him.” Mr. Craig gave me the thumbs up and strolled back to his office, whistling as I banged my head on my desk.

Lucas Blaine had quite a fan club. All of his references ranted and raved and sang his praises and I was beginning to wonder if they had also slept with him.

I hung up with the last one, a woman who praised him like the second coming, and then it was time.

Of course I had to organize my drawers, arrange my pens, get more coffee and reapply my makeup before I did it. I put it off as long as I could, but I was really drowning under my work here. I had been completely avoiding my voicemail box.

Taking one deep breath, I picked up the phone and willed my voice to be steady, and my brain to provide me with the appropriate words.

“Hello?”

Mmm, that voice. I paused for a second and forgot what I was supposed to be doing, so I cleared my throat.

“Hello, may I please speak to Lucas Blaine?” I knew it was him, but I didn’t want him to know I recognized his voice from just the hello.

“This is he.” Swoon.

“Hi, Mr. Blaine, this is Aurora Clarke from Clarke Enterprises. I was just calling to tell you that you got the assistant job.”

“Hello again, Aurora Clarke.” Oh, the way his voice caressed my name made me quiver.

Stop that.

“That is very good news to hear. I have been sitting here and waiting for your call.” There were sounds in the background and I could tell he wasn’t at home.

“I’m sure you were,” I said sarcastically, dropping all pretense of being professional.