Punishing His Accountant: Caught Stealing

Ella Wilder has just been caught embezzling from the company accounts.

Lucky for her, the company CEO Josh McGould has always been attracted to her, and needs a new personal attendant. He gives Ella a choice: face the auditors, or follow his bidding and avoid legal prosecution.

When Ella chooses the latter option, Josh wastes no time in training her for her new role. Ella is forced to play th
e courtesan to her powerful boss. It’s a position that requires far less clothes than most jobs, and far more spankings…

Chapter One

It wasn’t like Ella Wilder planned to steal the money.

She’d just borrow it – and return it after a few days.

The balloon payment on her mortgage had come up, and the bank refused to refinance her loan. She scrambled to get funds from her IRA, but the paperwork was taking time, and she didn’t want to give up her beloved home.

After racking her brains for days, Ella decided that she’d get a short term loan from her employer,
InterPlus Worldwide. Nobody would notice that they money was gone, and she’d return it as soon as her IRA-paperwork went through…

“I need you to run a current quarterly statement for me right away.”

The deep male voice startled her, even though she knew who the speaker was. It was
Josh McGould, CEO of InterPlus Worldwide and her boss.

Ella rotated her chair to face the man standing behind her.

“Sure thing,” she said, “I’ll have it printed out within the hour. Do you want a digital file too?”

“
Yes, that would be great,” Josh said. “I’m flying down to Argentina on the redeye this evening, so I’ll review the numbers when I’m on the plane.”

Ella
nodded. “I’ll send the file to your private e-mail. Is there anything else you need before your trip?”

“No, that’ll
do it.”

Josh
shrugged, and Ella caught herself admiring the cut of his light gray suit and his midnight blue silk tie. Looks like Armani, she thought to herself, before reminding herself not to gawk at her boss’s chest.

“If you need anything else before you lea
ve, just let me know,” she said, wondering if he’d noticed her stare.

“Thanks,
Ella,” Josh said. “These sales trips seem to come up out of nowhere. I appreciate your helping me get ready.”

His eyes met hers,
then briefly swept downward. Ella was certain he’d just checked out her legs, and not for the first time, either, although he was always discreet about it.

Today she was wearing sheer pantyhose under a black pencil skirt that hit above the knee. As
Josh made eye contact with her again, she felt herself flush and had a sudden urge to tug the skirt down over her knees.

“You’re welcome,” she said, returning his gaze.

His eyes were deep brown, almost black, beneath his high, tanned forehead and luxurious jet black hair, which he wore combed back with just a touch of gel. Ella knew he prized good manners, and she always made sure to observe the proper formalities around him.

Besides, she thought, watching him striding away toward his corner office, his formalities made her feel more secure.
He seemed strong and masculine, and whenever he was nearby, her heart seemed to flutter. Occasionally she caught something in his eyes – something almost predatory, that made her feel weak-kneed.

Despite her attraction to him, Ella prided herself on her independence and had no intention of starting up an affair with her boss,
so she was grateful for his formal manner. Formalities helped increase the distance between them, and helped her to try not to fantasize about his rippling muscles and large hands.

Two years ago, Ella
had been hired as the head of InterPlus’s accounting department. She’d been surprised when Josh told her to report directly to him – she’d expected an international trade firm like InterPlus to have a vice president-controller, but, Josh told her that he liked doing things his own way.

Occasionally,
Josh would return from a trip overseas with a small gift for her. The latest had been a beautiful tea set from Malaysia, after he’d remarked that she always seemed to have a mug of tea at her desk. It had never occurred to her to add up the financial value of his gifts. He never made a big deal of the gifts, so she didn’t either.

Ella
dropped off the printed quarterly statement on Josh’s desk and e-mailed him a digital file as he had requested. For the rest of the afternoon she kept herself busy with some trivial financial reports, to keep her mind off what she was about to do.

At five o’clock, as the rest of the office was packing up to leave, she picked up a manila folder and took a stroll past the corner office to make sure
Josh wasn’t there.

The lights in his office were turned off, and the report she had dropped off for him was gone. Certain that
her boss was safely on a plane to Argentina, Ella made her way back to her desk and logged into the company payments system.

***

Ella’s heart beat wildly as she went into the InterPlus accounts payable section. Her fingers were trembling, but she managed to type in all the details need to transfer $99,468 to the fake business account that was actually hers.

It’s not wrong, she told herself, she’d repay
InterPlus as soon as her papers came through. Everything was set up perfectly, and when the company was audited in six months’ time, nobody would find out about her “loan”.

Still, she felt a little badly about betraying Josh’s trust in her.
She’d considered asking him directly for a loan, but she was afraid to. Ella was certain he’d turn her down, and worse, he’d think badly of her for having such messed-up personal finances.

She valued his high opinion of her too much to risk it.

Chapter 2

As she passed Josh’s office the next morning on the way to her desk, Ella was horrified to see that the lights were on and the door was closed.

She hurried to her workstation and sat down, he
r heart pounding in her ears. Obviously the trip to Argentina had been called off. That meant he could get full access to the company books before she could replace the money she had borrowed.

Fighting down her fear, she pulled out her reports for that day. She had covered her tracks well, she
told herself. With hundreds of large payables going through InterPlus on a daily basis, it was highly unlikely Josh would even notice her withdrawal.

She left the office for lunch, hoping to avoid talking to
Josh until her loan came in the next morning and she could make the transfer to cover her tracks.

When she returned at one o’clock, she found him waiting for her at her workstation. She thought he looked angry, but she told herself she was imagining it.

“Good afternoon, Mr. McGould,” she managed to choke out.

“Good afternoon,
Ella.”

“Was your trip to Argentina canceled?”

He scowled. “Yes, it was.”

“I’m sorry to hear that
.”

“
It’s unfortunate. A lot of money was at stake.”

Ella
took a deep breath. So that was what he was angry about. Maybe he hadn’t noticed the transfer after all.

“
Could you please run a report for me?”

“Of course,” she replied. Please, she thought, not accounts payable.

“I need you to run a detailed accounts payable for the past 24 hours.” He looked directly at her without changing his expression.

A wave of terror swept through her. This is it, she thought. My whole life is ruined.

Josh didn’t wait for her to answer.

“Bring it to my office at four o’clock,” he said curtly and left.

The afternoon passed in a blur. Ella tried to figure out what to say when she delivered the report. With any luck, she could get out of the office before he read it and have the amount deposited tomorrow morning before work. Maybe then he would go easy on her.

What was she thinking? Of course he could see the report on the computer. He had asked for the report so he could make her squirm.

At four o’clock she had the report printed and knocked on Josh’s office door.

“Sit down,” he ordered.

Ella sat down. Josh remained standing, towering above her. It made her feel like a schoolgirl who had been called to the principal’s office. Only this was worse. Much worse.

“
Ella, have you ever worked for a company that had two chief accountants watching the books?”

“Yes,” she said.

“Can you tell me why this is done?”

“It’s to guard against…”
She paused, feeling her heart thumping wildly.

“Yes?”
Josh’s dark eyes drilled into her.

Her throat felt dry and she gulped.
“Embezzlement.”

“
Yes, that is the correct term.” He paced back and forth behind his desk. “You’ve probably wondered why InterPlus doesn’t use this practice. The reason is, I’m the other person watching the books. I know that as CEO, I’m meant to delegate this practice and spend my time on more important matters, but I told you when I hired you that I like doing things my own way.”

Ella
nodded and swallowed hard. She felt as if she was going to faint.

Josh
stopped pacing and looked at her. “And you know that if I become aware of suspected embezzlement at this company, then as the CEO I’m obligated to report it to the police?”

Images of men in uniform and handcuffs flashed through
Ella’s mind. Frantically, she turned over the possibilities in her mind and decided to come clean. If she confessed and promised repayment, maybe she could avoid criminal charges.

“I only borrowed the money,” she blurted out. “I was going to repay it tomorrow, with interest.”

Josh nodded. “Please continue.”

“I’m sorry, Mr.
McGould,” she said, willing herself to hold back her tears. “Please don’t report this as a crime. InterPlus will get all of its money back tomorrow.”

Josh
shook his head. “Even if that’s true, it will be impossible to hide. InterPlus moves a lot of money, Ella, and the auditors are top-notch. They’re trained to look for one-time transactions using phony business accounts. If I don’t report you to the police, they will.”

Ella
felt sick to her stomach. Of course he was right.

She thought about Cook County jail and the horror stories. Even in the women’s unit, it was no place to be.

Josh picked up a Chinese paperweight from his desk and turned it over in his hands, as if weighing her fate. Ella felt time slow down. Finally, Josh put down the paperweight and turned to her.

“You used very bad judgment,
Ella,” he said. “But I’m not interested in seeing you go to prison. You can keep your money. I assume you’ve cashed out your retirement account to cover the embezzlement?”

Ella
nodded, afraid to speak.