My lips stretched into a smug smile as I opened the door and left my office to make my way over to his. I pushed open his door and Adrian looked up from his position near my things on the sofa. “I ended up ordering pizza, is that okay?” he asked, cocking his head to the side as he waited for my answer.
I shrugged, not wanting to say anything. I was hoping he ordered a cheese pizza, because that’s the only kind I liked.
“Okay. I ordered cheese because I didn’t know what you liked. Let’s get started.” He beckoned me over and patted the seat beside him, and I made my way over to it slowly, avoiding his gaze in the process. He had moved my papers onto the table in front of the sofa and had the draft planner out in front of him as the main focus of the papers.
“I have a crucial conference call next Friday with my business partner in New Zealand,” he said once I was seated beside him. “We need to put that in as the main focus point for Friday.”
He shifted toward me, closing the small space that I had purposely left between us. I looked up to meet his gaze and glared. He just looked at me with that grin of his. I sighed in frustration before I moved the position of my work bag to my lap, and rummaged inside it for some spare paper and my pen. Something red flashed in my side vision, but I decided to ignore it as I pulled out my favourite pen in triumph.
I wrote down what he said on the spare sheet of paper I found before turning around to find Adrian’s smug smirk on his face once again. After a short moment, he held up a bright red lace thong by the corners of the garment, and my eyes widened in disbelief as my cheeks flamed from embarrassment.
“Are you doing to wear this for me?”
“What the hell are you doing?” I shrieked, my voice coming out high pitched from embarrassment. I
did not
put that in my bag. I didn’t even own anything like that! I desperately raked my memory to see who went near my work bag recently, and instantly glared at the painting Adrian had in his office across from the sofa as I remembered Molly giggling hysterically on the Sunday they were all over. So this was why.
“They’re not mine,” I stated, the heat just burning in my cheeks.
“Are you sure about that? You don’t have to hide it from me. In fact, it kind of makes me wonder what you’re wearing underneath that sexy skirt of yours right now…” He trailed off and leaned in so that his face was inches away from mine. His infamous smirk never left his lips and my breathing hitched in my throat from the close proximity.
I felt one of his hands on my thigh and I instantly stiffened at the contact, unsure of how to react. I thought of my best friend, who was currently enjoying herself at a club.
If this was Amy, she’d jump him
. But I wasn’t Amy.
My shocked expression turned into a frown as my common sense came back to me like an invisible slap to the face. I glared into his hazel eyes before I placed my hand over his to stop it from going any further. “Mr. Kingston,” I told him in a cool voice while I held his gaze steadily. “I’d appreciate it if we focused solely on the work in front of us.”
The smug expression never left his face as he stared back at me for a few moments, before he nodded and turned his attention back to the draft planner. He removed his warm hand from my thigh, instantly making the area cold from the sudden exposure.
“Of course, Ms. Johnson,” he said. As he studied his schedule more closely, his smug expression turned into a frown.
“I need to host a charity dinner next Saturday, so put that in and tell Suzie to organise it. Tell her I want it to be like an auction, where 10 of my female workers are put in front of the audience and auctioned off for the night. Tell her to put the ones she knows to be gold diggers, or just plain easy. You’ll also have to be put in, I’m sorry.” He saw me grimace at the idea and explained, “They’ll get suspicious if I don’t involve my assistant.”
“What do you mean ‘auctioned off for the night’?” I asked, suddenly feeling nervous.
“Do you remember David Walter?” I cringed as the mental image of the middle-aged man wrapping an arm around my waist resurfaced in my mind. I nodded at him to continue.
“Well,” he explained, “he, along with a lot of other men, come to these things. Their wallets are fat and they tend to think with their male region more than their brains.”
“You mean like you do?” I raised my eyebrows as a slight sneer pulled at my lips.
Adrian glared. “Ha-ha. If we prep you all up professionally, they’ll pay
a lot
of money to take you home for the night where they can do what they like. The girls are cooperative.”
My expression turned disgusted. “The
girls
may be cooperative but I sure as hell am not! I don’t want to go home with some pervert stranger for the night just because ‘they’ll get suspicious’ if I’m not an option! That’s disgusting.” I scrunched my nose up as I imaged David Walter smiling at me smugly. I shuddered in fear before looking back up at Adrian. “Please, Adrian,” I begged, “Don’t make me do this.”
He gave me an apologetic look before his expression turned hard. “I don’t like the idea of anyone taking you home either. I’ll take care of it, don’t worry. For the time being, you’re one of the candidates.” His tone closed off the topic, so I sighed and finished writing the rest of the information down before Adrian’s work phone shrilled with a ring.
He got up from his position beside me and answered it swiftly. “Yes.” There was a pause before Adrian spoke up again. “Let him up,” he ordered, before putting the phone back in its position and looking at me. “Pizza’s here,” he announced, taking his seat beside me again. I nodded and began to move all the stray papers around the table to make enough room for the box. Just as I finished, there was a knock at the door.
Adrian got up instantly and pulled out his wallet.
“That’ll be $14.50,” I heard someone say. I saw Adrian pull out a $50 note and hand it over to the delivery boy.
“Keep the change,” he said dismissively, waving the boy off before shutting the door. The smell of the cheesy food hit me like a shock wave, and my stomach grumbled loudly before I could try and stop it from happening.
I began blushing furiously as Adrian looked over at me in surprise. He chuckled, placing the box of pizza and the bottle of drink on the table. “Should I have ordered another box?” he teased.
“Shut up,” I muttered, avoiding his gaze as my blush deepened.
He walked over to his office and opened a side draw, pulling out two coffee mugs and taking his original position on the sofa. “They’re clean,” he assured me as I glanced at the cups with a cautious expression.
I took out my pocket tissues and gave them both a wipe over – just in case – before we dug in. By the time we had finished the pizza, we had the whole of next week sorted to Adrian’s satisfaction and I had a rough overview of what he wanted for the week after. We discarded the empty pizza box and drink bottle to the side of the sofa before Adrian took a sip from his cup and spoke up.
“I’m going to give you $6,000 for your dress and shoes this time. You can keep the rest if you don’t spend it all. I’ll also get Rita to do your hair again, and you’re makeup-”
“Will be done by me,” I cut him off. “I’m not a fan of makeup, Adrian. I prefer to do it myself.”
“You look sexy either way – I was just trying to make less of a workload for you.”
I blushed and smiled slightly. “Thank you, but I’ll be fine.”
“You’ll be more than fine, shortcake, believe me.” His eyes raked over the length of my body, and he licked his lips and smirked.
I rolled my eyes and shoved his arm playfully, before focusing my attention back on the planner. “So for the conference next Wednesday, do you need me there?” I asked, picking up my pen again to write any additional notes down.
I felt his arm wrap around my waist and I let out a surprise gasp as he pulled me into his solid torso. He looked down at me with a rakish grin. “I need you everywhere, shortcake. Especially in my bedroom where we can have-”
“Don’t you dare finish that sentence, Kingston,” I warned, placing my index finger on his lips to stop him from talking. He chuckled before I felt him nip a bite at my finger, making another surprised gasp leave my mouth.
“Yes, you need to be there taking notes while we talk,” he said, “Who knows, maybe your pretty little head will help us come up with new advertising strategies for our New Zealand hotel.” He poked my forehead a few times before placing a peck on it so quickly I had no opportunity to pull away. I shook my head at his behaviour but moved on, writing down his instructions onto my notebook. I finished with a flourish and checked the time on my phone.
“It’s late,” I said, shutting my notebook and placing it in my bag. “I should be getting home.”
“Come over,” he said, and I turned back around to him surprise. I opened my mouth to object but he cut me off before I could even begin. “Please, Emily. I won’t try anything. It’ll be like last time.” He looked like a shy child who had just entered a toy store, hope shining in his eyes.
“Adrian,” I sighed, his expression making me feel guilty for declining. “I can’t… it’s not right. I mean, we’ve only known each other for two weeks – and the last time I came over was just that – the last time.” I bit my lip as I watched his hope fade and his expression turn dark.
He looked away from me before I could see where else it would go.
“Fine,” he snapped, extracting his arm from around my waist before getting up from his seat next to me in an instant. “I’ll see you on Monday, Ms. Johnson. Have a nice weekend.” He finished with a cold voice, before disappearing into the unknown room that was connected to his office. He slammed the door shut behind him.
I stared at the shiny, glass matte door in shock for a few moments before sighing and packing up the remaining papers into my bag. Adrian was more Bi-Polar than Australia’s weather – which, from what I’ve seen, is pretty bi-polar. And his mood swings always had something to do with me. I slung my bag over my shoulder and wondered why, as I got up from my seat and cast one more look at the door Adrian disappeared into.
Just when I thought we were making progress
, I thought to myself as I left his office and walked to the elevators.
My mind was on Adrian the entire way home.
As I turned the key to my apartment, I remembered something important and let out a shocked gasp.
The red thong was still in Adrian’s office.
Blushing, I shook off the image of Adrian, smirking as he held the garment, which had come unbidden into my mind.
C
hapter Seven
“YOU’RE DOING
WHAT?!”
Amy screeched, dropping her phone in shock. I let out a surprised squeak and picked it up for her as she stayed in the same disbelieving position. “You’re going to be a prostitute for the night?!” Amy asked, in the same high-pitched tone of disbelief.
I frowned, not liking the way she was taking the news of me being an involuntary volunteer for the charity dinner on Saturday. “It’s not like I’m doing it by choice,” I grumbled, sinking onto the soft mattress on her bed. “Plus, Adrian said he’ll take care of it. I’m sure he won’t let me go home with a stranger…” Or at least, I
hoped
he wouldn’t. Ever since our tiny disagreement last Friday, Adrian had been giving me the cold shoulder the entire week so far, only talking to me when it was necessary.
“No way. There is
no way in hell
that I am letting you go through with this. Not you! No! You won’t even look at a guy on the street unless you knew him well enough to know his middle name!” Amy jumped onto her queen sized bed beside me. Unlike me, Amy had to wear flannel pajama pants no matter what season it was – in contrast to my underwear-only policy.
“Like it said, I’m not doing it by choice. I’m his assistant; I
have
to be one of the candidates. Just, don’t worry about it. Can you just go crazy again and find me a dress? Buy yourself a new pair of heels while you’re at it as well; your snakeskin
Louboutin’s
are getting kind of worn out.” I threw a meaningful glance in the direction of the pointed, red outer sole of the snakeskin printed heels in the corner of her bedroom.
Her disapproving expression suddenly changed to one of excitement. “$5,000 to spend!” she declared with a determined expression. “Ah! Okay, let’s do this.” She got under her bed sheets and placed the silver laptop on her thighs. She lifted the screen open and I decided that I was going to catch up on some television while she went shopping for a dress.
“No colour scheme this time, right?” she asked, casting a sideways glance at my zoned out expression. I shook my head, not taking my eyes off the television.
“You know, I think Adrian will end up doing something really romantic on Saturday that will assure you that your private parts are safe from those horn dogs. You just wait and see.” I turned around to give Amy a flat expression at her smug smile, then it occurred to me that I hadn’t actually
told
her that we got into a slight disagreement on Friday night, because I was bombarding her with questions about her night.
“About that…” I began, a sheepish smile crawling onto my lips.
Her head snapped in my direction so fast, that I thought her neck had broken in the process. “What. Haven’t. You. Told. Me.” She said slowly, glaring.
I picked at my nails before meeting her eyes again with a guilty smile. “Please don’t kill me! I had just forgotten to mention it to you…”
“Well, hurry up then! What happened between you two?! I swear to God, Emily Johnson, if you have withheld the news of a shared kiss between you two I will suffocate you with my pillows.” Her eyes narrowed even further into a death glare.
“No, no! We did
not
kiss. That won’t happen, believe me. We did… kind of get into a fight on Friday night though.”
“Over what?!” she exclaimed, and she put the laptop down on the space between us. My eyes briefly flickered over to the bright screen, and I saw rows of gorgeous dresses, but couldn’t stare at them any longer because Amy snapped the laptop shut with her hand.
“Sorry. It was really nothing. I don’t know why he’s
still
upset over it. I mean, it’s not like I haven’t rejected him before…” I trailed off, my own thoughts stopping me from continuing the story. Why was he so worked up over it? I mean, the last time I had gone over, all we did was sleep and eat brunch together. It was nothing major.
“What happened?!” she screeched, pulling me back into reality.
“Well, we were actually having an okay time, you know? Then I mentioned that I have to get home and he invited me over,
again.
I said no, and, well, I don’t know. He just became all snappy and disappeared into a door that’s in his office. Then, when I went to drop off his planner on Sunday, he wasn’t home. The maid that cleans his house took it from me and told me that he stayed at a girl’s place.” I shrugged, not really knowing what else to say.
Amy gave me a look that I thought would burn my skin. “Did you just give me a
brief
version of a story involving Adrian Kingston?” she asked, clenching her teeth together angrily.
“Ames, are you due for your period soon?” I asked in amusement, as her angry expression turned into one of confusion. “I don’t know. Hey, I’ll check!” she chirped, suddenly cheery again as she reached for her phone and went on the period tracker app that she had installed. “Huh, would you look at that,” she said, before shoving the phone right to the tip of my nose. “I’m due in 3 days.” She smiled widely.
I raised my eyebrows at her happiness towards being due for what I thought was a monthly visit from death, but didn’t question her behaviour. “Anyway, it’s getting late, and we both have work tomorrow-”
“I have to find your dress by 12AM tonight or else it won’t come in on time! You go to sleep, I’ll take care of it. It’s too early for my bedtime anyway, granny.”
I rolled my eyes before switching the television off. “Suit yourself,” I said in mid-yawn, “I trust your taste anyway. Thanks so much, Ames. Goodnight.”
“I’m here to help!” she said. “I’ll take a photo of the dress once I find it and show it to you tomorrow before we go to work.”
I nodded and set my alarms before taking off my bra and getting in a comfortable position to sleep.
***
“Suzie, please let me help,” I implored her. “It’s a lot of work to put an entire event together in a week! It’s tomorrow, how about you rest for the day and I’ll do the rest of the last-minute preparations?” I watched her scrawl something down on a sheet of paper.
“Oh no, I couldn’t do that to you, sweetie. I’m fine, honestly. Don’t you have an important conference call to be in -” she checked the small clock on her desk before looking back up at me, “-10 minutes?” she asked, raising an eyebrow with an amused expression at my miserable look.
“Yes, but-”
“Ms. Johnson.” I heard Adrian’s deep British accent from somewhere behind me, cutting my explanation to Suzie off. “We need to set up for the conference call.”
I rearranged my features to a neutral expression before turning around and nodding calmly, before picking up the files I had put down beside me and following him down the hall to the elevator.
Under normal circumstances, the ride down to the third level and the quiet walk down the hall to the largest conference room in the building would’ve been comfortable and over in under a few minutes. Due to Adrian’s quiet and gloomy attitude towards me though, it felt like it had taken hours, and the high-pitched sound of a cricket stirring into life was all the silence needed to confirm that it was one thing – awkward.
Once we reached the conference room, I immediately logged in and began setting up the camera while Adrian got comfortable in one of the seats closest to the large, flat screen that covered almost the entire wall. I placed all the necessary paperwork in front of him before going back to where the Mac computer was and patiently waited for the 10 minutes to be up.
Adrian, on the other hand, had no patience at all. “Just call now,” he snapped at me. “I don’t have time to wait.”
I instantly jumped and pressed the call button on the flat screen computer. Small beeping noises filled the room, confirming that the connection was secure and that the phone call was going through.
After a few more rings, a man appeared on the screen, frowning slightly. “You’re a little early, Mr. Kingston.”
“Only by five minutes; I have other matters to attend to,” he said in a cold, snappy tone. In response, the other man’s expression turned to one of pure business and a little fear. “Now, brief me on the previous advertisements used before we begin.”
As instructed, the man launched into an explanation of the advertisements they had developed in the New Zealand branch for Kingston Corp.
Deciding that was my cue to set up the conference room, I scurried around the table quietly while I set up the next meeting that was going to be held in here in half an hour. I zoned out of the conversation that was taking place in front of me, until Adrian’s voice brought me back to reality.
“That is my assistant. You have no business with her.” His harsh tone had lashed out, and my head snapped in his direction, before my gaze trailed over to the man on the screen, who was staring at me.
A blush made its way to my cheeks as I awkwardly cleared my throat and continued setting up the paperwork in front of each chair that was placed around the table, until the man spoke up again.
“What’s her name?” he asked, and I frowned slightly, thinking,
I’m in the same room, you know.
“Mr. Evans. If you wish to keep your position – no, your
job –
then I suggest you listen to my advice when I say that you have no business with her.”
I looked over at Adrian to find his jaw clenched as he threw a ferocious glare in the direction of the man on the screen, and my eyes widened slightly.
“Sorry, Mr. Kingston,” Mr. Evans muttered. “It won’t happen again.” The conversation steered back to business. The conference call ended about 15 minutes after that encounter, when I was already seated by the computer and ready to switch everything off. Once I was done, I looked over at Adrian for his next assignment.
“What do you think we should do?” he asked after a short silence, his voice coming out emotionless.
I tried to mask my surprise before answering. “About the improvement? Personally, I don’t believe what they’ve created is good at all. You want to convince the consumer that the hotel is a safe place to stay in with a family; for example, showing what the hotel has to offer children. I mean, there are tennis courts and swimming pools in the New Zealand one as well, right? You also want to show that an individual can relax during their stay there. Show the massaging places and spa resorts you have there as well.
“Sex appeal being the only aspect of the advertisement isn’t really going to get you anywhere unless you’re aiming the advertisement at horny teenagers,” I finished, biting my lip.
Adrian looked deep in thought for a few moments, rubbing his jawline and frowning slightly before I saw him nod slightly in agreement. “You’re right. Email what you just said, over to the New Zealand office and tell them I approve.” I nodded briefly to acknowledge his order while writing it down in my notebook as a reminder.
“Anything else?” I asked once I was done.
“Have you found a dress for tomorrow’s fundraiser?” he asked, slightly raising one eyebrow in my direction.
I got out of my seated position and nodded slightly as the image of the dress Amy had sent me from her phone this morning popped up in my mind. The dress was much more decent than the last one she had chosen, and I thanked her countless times during the morning rush before work. She told me she only bought it because she didn’t want any horn dogs to be perving at my deadly curves; although the dress still barely covered anything and looked like it would stick like a second skin from the top half. Amy had also bought a pair of nude heels to go with the dress, and I squealed in delight once she had told me they were
Christian Louboutin’s
.
“Good,” he nodded, before everything became silent again. I frowned as I realised that Adrian had started the conversation first this time, and spoke before I could stop myself.
“You spoke to me,” I blurted, instantly flushing all over in embarrassment.
He took in my flushed state thoughtfully, before speaking up. “I always speak to you?” he said, although it sounded more like a question.