Chosen by the Billionaire

Chosen by the Billionaire

Emma Rose

Copyright
2012 by Emma Rose

***

Be sure to check out Emma Rose's latest steamy Billionaire series:

His Every Desire:  The Billionaire’s Contract
  – When Celine landed a promotion within the large company she worked for, she didn't expect the barrage of questions to be so personal. Nor did she expect to become the personal assistant for the company's handsome billionaire owner, P. Winston Dunn. To be a billionaire's assistant, however, requires her to submit to his every desire...

***

Caroline walked through the glass door. The black doormat her red high heels passed over read, "Biotech: The Future of Life," in bold white letters. Her heels clacked against the brown tiles on the way to the elevator. She pressed a button and straightened her short brown hair. She looked into the silver elevator door.

Her blue eyes were bloodshot, naturally, as she hadn't slept well in weeks. The door slid open to reveal several bleary eyed workers that were just getting off the night shift. They filed passed her and she entered the elevator.

Three floors later she was walking down a main aisle, her faded red dress, which was slightly tattered and had seen better days, lost in a sea of similarly colored cubicles. She absent mindedly walked down four blocks before she found her own.

A black computer monitor sat on a white desk. Neatly placed underneath was a black rolling chair. Her austere workspace smelled as sterile as it looked. She sneezed. Cleaning supplies always prompted that response.

She rubbed her nose, turned on her computer, and took a seat. This was how her day started, every day: turn on the computer, sit down, reach for a tissue in one of her desk drawers, throw tissue into trash can outside of her cubicle. Then yawn, check email, and see the huge amount of work her boss gave her to do. Most of it was work he was supposed to do, but he was too busy playing golf and flirting with interns one-third his age.

The radio in the next cubicle over told the tragic news of how the value of Biotech's stock had fallen for the third straight quarter. It may have been a surprise to everyone else, but it was no surprise to her. The company was bleeding money.

Her boss had given her sensitive documents to work on that detailed risky biological ventures the company took part in, which were mostly illegal. In follow up paperwork—that her boss, again, hadn’t wanted to work on—Caroline learned these investments generated no revenue, probably because of the legal implications, and cost the company millions. There was even some evidence that there were people at the top who were taking money from the company and hiding the paper trail. All of these things, and probably others Caroline didn't know about, were making the company suffer.

It wasn't just the company that was suffering though. The company's employees were taking a hit as well. In the past three years she had been with the company, Caroline's pay had been cut five times. She would immediately go to the police and tell them about the foul dealings the company took part in but she would be fired. For someone who lived paycheck to paycheck, that wasn't an option.

Her balding boss came strolling down the main aisle, stopping to utter senseless boss like comments to her co-workers.  Caroline heard him coming her way so she stared at her screen and began working on a PowerPoint presentation that same boss had been too lazy to put together.

Her portly superior stuck his head around the reddish wall of the cubicle. "Caroline, you working hard on that presentation?"

"Yes, sir, I have it on the screen," she replied, not looking away from the computer.

He moved close to her, looking over her shoulder. She twitched when she felt his warm, moist breath on her exposed neck.

"It's looking good, but it needs a little something."

Caroline felt the sleeve of his suit slide over her arm and his wrinkled hand overlay hers. Her eyes darted at the intrusion as he moved her mouse across the gray mouse pad. She was so shocked she didn't see his hand quickly slide down the neck of her dress and grope her breast.

She gasped and he withdrew his hand.

"You see, you didn't add sound effects. All professional presentations must have sound effects."

He clicked on the menu to add a random sound effect to the presentation. "There, that's perfect. Oh, by the way," her boss pulled out a large stack of envelopes from his jacket pocket. "I want you to deliver these to whom they belong."

He dropped the envelopes on her desk and they slid apart in an unorganized pile. "They are very important so I want you to hurry up and deliver them and get back on that presentation. I need it by this afternoon."

Sharp pains shot through Caroline's lungs as he left as calmly as he had entered.
How could he be so calm after doing something like that?
The young woman gritted her teeth, picked up the disorganized pile of letters and left her cubicle.

She would have reported him, but again, she couldn't afford to lose her job. Besides, it wasn't the first time it had happened and she was certain it wouldn't be the last.

She delivered the letters one by one, noticing there was an envelope for at least three-quarters of the people in her department. The last letter she came to was her best friend and "next door cubicle neighbor", Grace Swan.

Grace had been at the company for thirty-five years, faithfully serving her role as an administrative assistant under all conditions, in sickness and health. Her time with the company lasted longer than her marriage which ended with her husband's death the previous year.

Caroline knocked on the entrance to Grace's cubicle and the plump woman, wearing a black dress with ducks flying across it, turned around.

"Hi, Caroline, what brings you around this early?"

"Just here to deliver mail from our wonderful boss," she replied sarcastically.

"Wonderful. I wonder if it's news of another pay cut." She scooted forward in her roller chair to collect the letter.

"No, because if it was we all would have gotten one. So, have you decided what you're going to do after your last day?"

"Girl, I'm going to drink up a storm. Wanna join me?"

Caroline chuckled. "Sure, why not. I probably won't have anything to do that night anyway."

"Just three more weeks," Gloria said as her strong fingers tore open the letter. "Three more weeks until I am out of this hell."

"Lucky you, I can't wait till I retire."

Gloria smiled as she scanned the letter. "Now, don't say that. You're young and have your whole life to look forward to. Enjoy it while you can, baby, because trust me, it don't last forever."

"Well, I can do without all this lasting forever," Caroline sighed, "I have nothing to look forward to."

Caroline waited for a reply to her comment, but it didn't come. She looked up at her friend and saw tears in her eyes. "You alright, Gloria?"

Gloria's mouth moved but no sound came out. Moisture leaked down the bags beneath her eyes.

"Gloria?"

Caroline's friend tried to respond once more. Instead, she handed over the piece of paper. Caroline read it and gasped. It essentially said that because of the economic troubles the company was facing, the company was forced to downsize. Unfortunately, her friend had been caught in the downsizing. 

Caroline quickly rushed over to Gloria and embraced her. Fire ignited in her chest. She clenched her fists as her friend began to sob in her embrace.

Firing Gloria a few weeks before retirement denied her benefits she so desperately needed. The young woman's ears picked up the sounds of other gasps, shouts, and heated conversation going on through her department.

This was wrong. This was very wrong.
The company screwed up and her co-workers had to pay for it?
No, this couldn't happen. Caroline’s vision clouded. All the abuse, all the long days, all the unpaid work and "take home" assignments she had to perform without pay finally resurfaced. She bit her tongue.

The people responsible for this were about to feel the heat for what their brazen mismanagement of the company had caused. They were going to pay for the sins of denying an elderly woman her desperately needed benefits, and the many lives that they had no doubt wrecked.  The board was having a meeting that afternoon, and during their meeting she was going to deliver her message.

***

Seething anger burned behind Caroline's eyes as she pressed the button beside the elevator. She was going to tell them off and tell them off good. They were not only going to hear what she had to say, but they were going to do something about it as well. The mismanagement of the company had gone on for too long. It was about time someone stood up to those lazy pigs upstairs.

There was a beep and the silver door on the elevator slid aside. Caroline almost stomped as she moved inside.
Damn this place.
"Biotech: The Future of Life." Bullshit. If this was the damned future, she wanted to die right now. A future like this held nothing for her. She had already missed out on a lot in life since she had started the job. It had been three years since she had been with anyone.  Three whole years!

Caroline wanted to scream while tearing off her old faded dress and banging her head against the wall. She noticed for the first time she was not alone on the elevator.

Her traveling companion was tall, his brown hair carefully combed to display its fullness. Muscled arms and legs moved fluidly in a green t-shirt and loose blue exercise shorts. There was an orange gym bag slung over his shoulder.

Wait a minute, t-shirt, shorts, and a gym bag?
Caroline did a double take. What was a person like that doing there? He looked like he should have been outside exercising instead of inside a large, biological engineering firm.

Her thoughts quickly went back to her problem. She saw herself banging her head against the brown plastic walls of the elevator, crying her eyes out, tearing at her well-worn dress, cursing the day she started working in the hell hole of a company. While she cried, she saw the man with the whiskered chin walk over and slowly gather her in his arms. He held her and rocked back and forth.

She was comforted by his strong yet gentle embrace. Caroline rested her cheek against his firm chest and let her hands slide around to his well-defined back and up his shirt. Slowly, she caressed along his spine while he rocked her. He moved his large hands to her shoulders to lower the torn garment down her body.

Her tits were exposed, erect, pressing against his body. She could feel his heart quicken in his chest and moistness begin to accumulate in her crotch. His lips pressed against hers. Sparks were ignited. Their tongues began to dance silently together, the taste driving them both to a shared bliss.

Caroline slid her hands slowly down his back, past his waist, to the rounded, firm buttocks in his exercise shorts. She squeezed both cheeks and he jumped a little. She giggled when she felt his reaction and a massive member in his shorts grew firm.

Caroline was so lost in her fantasy that she had forgotten all about her troubles again. She had forgotten about everything. So lost was she, in fact, that she didn't notice herself gravitating toward the man in the elevator. Or that her hand had slowly reached up behind him and firmly grabbed his muscled rear.

The man jumped, just like he had in Caroline's fantasy, except she wasn't pressed against him and didn't know if his member had firmed in his shorts. He turned his ice blue gaze down to her and smiled nervously, showing straight, pearly white teeth.

"You know I usually shake hands to greet someone, but that will do for a nice change."

Caroline gasped, her eyes growing wide with the realization of what she had just done. "Oh my God, sir, I am so sorry! Please forgive me I uh...oh, God, everything is just awful right now. I am really sorry."

His nervous smile melted into concern. "Oh, well, worse things have happened to me. At least you aren't a crazy girl who was trying to lick my toes."