Billionaires, Bad Boys, and Alpha Males (59 page)

The second had been Alec, a guy she’d
only been on a handful of dates with her senior year of college.
 

In both cases, the sex itself had been
forgettable; neither bad nor good.
 
She certainly hadn’t achieved orgasm, another fact that Danielle found
incomprehensible.
 

But lying in bed nude, after hearing the
best news of her life and speaking with a powerful man that she practically
worshipped—Nicole found herself incredibly turned on.
 
To say this was a rare occurrence would
have been an understatement.

And she was
so
wet.
 
Her fingers
traced around the edges of her pussy, the lips, so soft and tender and
sensitive.
 
She closed her eyes and
heard his voice again.

Nicole.

The way he’d looked her up and down when
she was in his office, as if evaluating her down to the last cell.
 
In the end, he clearly didn’t find her
disgusting.
 
How then, should she
take his evaluating gaze?
 
How then,
should she interpret this private phone call?
 

She dug her two fingers slowly into the
moist crevice of herself, slowly penetrating the layers of flesh, going
inside.
 
She was pulsing with heat
and excitement.
 
For him.
 
For Red.
 
For the only man that had ever made her
this hot.

After only a few minutes of slow
masturbation, she came violently, her hips swinging into the air.
 
She could see her pelvis in the
full-length mirror across from her.
 
Saw her buttocks lifting upwards, her skin slick with sweat as her hand
rubbed her clitoris.

Oh god, she thought.
 
What have I gotten myself into?

***

“Good to see you,” Glen Goldman said when
she arrived the next morning at nine o’clock.
 
He checked his watch.
 
“From now on, please come in by eight
o’clock.
 
If possible, seven thirty.”

“Absolutely!
 
I didn’t know—“

He smiled and blinked.
 
“It’s fine.
 
First day and all.”

“Mister Jameson didn’t tell me what time
I should arrive,” she said.

Glen stopped blinking entirely.
 
Which seemed to be a sign that something
was truly amiss.
 
“Mr. Jameson?”

“Yes.”
 
She shouldered her purse nervously.

“Why would he have told you what time to
arrive?”

“Because he called me to tell me I had
the job.”
 
She shifted her weight
from one foot to the other, suddenly feeling like she was walking into
quicksand.

Glen’s expression seemed to harden a
little.
 
“Oh.
 
I see.
 
Well, that’s highly
unusual—normally an HR representative would have phoned you. But I’m sure
he had his reasons.
 
He always
does.
 
In any case, let me show you
to your desk.”

He got up from his chair and escorted her
from his office into the mass of cubicles where the lower caste existed.
 
She would occupy a simple corner
cubicle.
 
It was bare, white, with a
Mac laptop sitting open on the desk and a phone beside that.

“So, what should I do to start?” she
asked him, putting her purse strap over the seat back and sitting down.

“I’ll bring you over some reading
material.
 
A binder with basic
information about our company as well as some nondisclosure forms for you to
sign, etcetera.
 
When you’re done
with the binder, come and see me.”
 
He disappeared and came back moments later with an enormous, thick
binder full of various forms and pamphlets and company policies.
 

He handed it off with a smile and a few
blinks, then left her by herself.
 
Around her, the cubicles buzzed with people gossiping, talking on the
phone with clients, or simply working.
 

Nicole kept to herself, put her head down
and got to work.

***

“Want to grab a bite to eat?”

She glanced up to find Remi Danvers, the
Art Director, standing in her cubicle entrance looking just as severe as she
had the previous day.
 

“Oh.
 
Is it lunch already?” Nicole asked.

Remi shrugged.
 
“We’re flexible.
 
It’s only eleven but I find that the
cafeteria gets too crowded at lunch time, so I go early.”

“Sure, I’ll come.
 
I don’t even know where it is.”

“Oh, you need the grand tour, then!”

Remi took her down to the fifth floor,
which was taken up entirely by the cafeteria.
 
The word cafeteria didn’t do it justice
in actuality.
 
It was enormous, with
seating in four or five separate locals, some great window seats and some
private booths too.
 
There were no
less than half a dozen food stations that served cuisine from different parts
of the world.
 
Italian, American,
French, Asian, Middle Eastern.

Remi whispered to her.
 
“The Middle Eastern food tastes like ox
shit, but everything else here is fantastic.”

Eventually they both got their food (Remi
had baked ziti, Nicole got a cheeseburger and fries) and sat down at a small
table overlooking midtown.
 

“This view’s incredible,” Nicole said,
biting into her hamburger.
 
“And the
food is good too,” she said through a mouthful of beef.

Remi nodded.
 
She still had her sleeves rolled up and
her shirt unbuttoned, but somehow she was less intimidating now.
 
“You could do a lot worse than to get a
job with Jameson.
 
It has all the
bells and whistles, in an industry known for its bells and whistles, if you
know what I mean.”

“I think I do.”

Remi eyed her.
 
“Are you really as naïve as you seem?”

“I—I don’t know.
 
I guess maybe I am.”

The older woman speared her ziti and held
it momentarily in mid air.
 
“I’m
trying to decide if you’re going to be ground up and spit out in a month
working here, or whether you’ll be promoted to head of the division in the next
year.
 
I guess it’s a coin
toss.”
 
She ate noisily.

Nicole just shrugged.
 
“I only want to work hard and do a good
job.”

“Awww, aint that sweet.”
 
Remi chewed and chewed and then her mouth
closed and her eyes bugged out of her head.
 
“Holy shit.
 
He’s here.”

“Who?”
 
Nicole turned to look.

“Who do you think?”

It was Red.
 
He was with someone she didn’t
recognize, a tall man with an enormous head.
 
The two of them were walking right past
Nicole and Remi.

“Keep your head down,” Remi
whispered.
 
“Don’t say
anything.
 
Don’t make a peep.”

She did as told.
 
Picked up her burger and took a
bite.
 
Remi looked out the window.

Her heart was beating a mile a minute as
the two men passed by her, and she didn’t take a single breath.
 
And then it happened.
 
Red turned and came back.
 
“I thought I recognized you,” Red said,
coming to stand in front of their table.

At first, Nicole thought he had to be
speaking to Remi.
 
But Remi was just
looking down at her baked ziti.

“Me?” Nicole squeaked.

Red laughed heartily.
 
“Yes, you.
 
I see you made it to your first day of
work in one piece.”
 

“Yeah.”
 
What a dumb comment.
 
Yeah
.
 
Of all things, it made her sound so
young and vapid.

She could smell his cologne.
 
It was musky and fresh all at once.
 
He smelled of power, of cigars and
money.
 

“I hope everyone’s treating you well?”

“Yes.
 
Glen and Remi have been amazing.”

“Glad to hear it.
 
Why don’t you swing by my office today
before you go home, and you can tell me what they have you working on?”

“Sure…Just go up?”

“Yes, just come up like you did
yesterday.”
 
He smiled at both of
them and walked off.

When he was well out of earshot, Remi
turned and looked at Nicole like she was seeing Elvis come back from the
dead.
 
“You’ve got to be kidding
me.
 
He just invited you to his
office.”

“Is that bad?”

“How should I know?” Remi said, spearing
more ziti.
 
“I mean, I’ve been
working here nearly six years and he only had me up to his office once, with
Edward, when we were planning a pitch for a huge client.”

Nicole didn’t know what to think.
 
Her palms were sweaty and her throat was
tight and dry.
 
“I don’t know what
to do.”

“Do?
 
Just keep doing whatever you did to get his attention in the first
place.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Yeah, keep doing that,” Remi said,
shoveling a forkful into her mouth and chewing like a cow.

***

The rest of the day went by in a
blur.
 
She was reading the stupid
binder and in between that, she made a few hundred copies of some presentation
for Glen and then edited a few PowerPoint slides for Edward.
 
None of it required too much brainpower,
which was funny considering how picky the company was and all the hoops she’d
had to jump through in order to get the job in the first place.

She’d been going through the motions ever
since Red had told her to come up to his office at the end of the day.
 
She was half-dreading it, but the other
half of her was so charged up that she was making herself crazy.

Imagining different scenarios playing
out.
 
Picturing him kissing
her.
 
Or yelling at her.
 
Or both.
 
Imagining him telling her that he wanted
to groom her to take over his company one day.
 
The fantasies were out of control and
she could barely take it.

In the bathroom, at around three that
afternoon, she’d had an urge to go into one of the stalls and masturbate.
 
That literally had never happened to her
in her entire life.
 
The urge to
masturbate had never been much stronger than the urge to play a game of
checkers.

She resisted, but it had been difficult.

Finally, six o’clock rolled around and
Glen swung by, telling her she could go home if she liked.
 
“Nice job today,” he said, blinking and
smiling.
 

She grabbed her purse and immediately
walked to the “special” elevator, the one she’d taken yesterday to get to Red’s
office.

Taking a deep breath, she pushed the call
button and soon the doors opened.
 
The elevator operator was there, in his usual suit, smiling
formally.
 
“Mister Jameson is expecting
you,” he said.

“Oh.
 
Great.
 
Thanks.”
 
She licked her lips and tried to keep
her knees from knocking.

The elevator arrived and she got out,
walking down the familiar hallway and knocking at the heavy wooden doors.
 
This time, Red opened the door
himself.
 
“There she is,” he
announced, waving her inside.
 
“Miss
Masters, rising star of the advertising world, and cute as a button in her red
pumps and pantsuit.”

She looked down at her outfit, feeling
suddenly shabby.
 
“Sorry, did I
dress inappropriately?”

“Whatever gave you that idea?” he
laughed.
 
“Drink?”

“No, I’m fine, thank you.”

“I was thinking of making myself an extra
dry martini, but it is a bit early in the week for that.”
 
He smiled.
 
“Have a seat.”