Billionaire Romance: MAXIMILIAN (An Alpha Bad Boy Contemporary Mystery Romance) (Mysterious Billionaires Book 3, Anthologies & Collections) (31 page)

When Ashton arrived at the office the following morning he found Elise already waiting for him in the lobby. He almost didn’t recognize her. She wasn’t dressed in her usual BOHO chic style, rather, she was dressed from head to toe in what he recognized to be an Armani business suit.  He swallowed and pushed aside his annoyance knowing his father must have bought it for her.

She squealed when she saw him and ran over to him with open arms. “Ashton!” He sidestepped her hug and gave her a disapproving look before nodding his head slightly.

“Elise,” he said coldly.

“Do you like my suit?” she asked, tugging on the form-fitting jacket.  She was quite talented at ignoring the cold treatment from him.  Every time they saw each other she acted overjoyed, though never quite as much as today.

“It’s very nice,” he said as he began walking toward the elevators. Elise followed him, taking two steps for every one of his.

“Daddy bought it for me for my first day on the job!” she exclaimed. She stood beside him as he waited for the elevator to come.  He glared at her.  There was the sugary sweet ‘daddy’ falling from her lips.  There was her ability to rely on him even though his own son could not.

“You don’t have a job yet, Elise.”

“Oh. Right,” Elise said.  There was an awkward silence. A few minutes later, however, the silence obviously became too much for her and she started talking again. “Do you think you might have something I can do?” she asked.

Ashton turned to look at her.  After taking a deep breath he said, “Elise, if I’m being honest I don’t know that you have any skills that I can utilize.”

Elise pressed together her ruby lips. “I am pretty good in sales.”

Ashton stared at her. “But again, Elise, do you know anything about investments?”

Elise shook her head. “Does that mean that I don’t have a job?”

The elevator doors opened and Ashton stepped inside. “Follow me and we will see.” 

She scurried after him.  Elise managed to stay silent as the elevator took them up to the top floor. Ashton was relieved not to have to hear the word ‘daddy’ one more time. But that relief would only last until the end of the elevator ride.

“Daddy says I’d be good at just about anything if you gave me the chance,” she said.

Ashton clenched his square jaw as he led her down the long hallway to the double doors of his office.  Of course his father would show faith in just about anybody but him. “We’ll see about that.”  After he unlocked his office doors, Ashton walked in and sat down behind his desk. Elise followed and sat down across him without being invited. Ashton was certain that she was going to be the cause of his first heart attack at thirty six years old.

Elise twisted a brilliant ginger strand of curled hair around her finger as she watched Ashton intently. “Soooo…what do we do now?”

Ashton looked at her. What the hell was he going to do with an untalented twenty year old? Sure, sex sold, but you couldn’t sex your way into investment, could you? Ashton raised an eyebrow. “Have you ever had phone sex?” he asked bluntly.

Elise frowned. “Why?”

“Answer the question, please.”

She nodded.  “Why?” she asked again.

Though he found it mildly curious she wasn’t more affronted by his question, he decided to sidestep that and go on.  “I have an idea,” Ashton said as he pulled open one of the drawers in his desk. Pulling out a manila folder, he flipped it open and began looking through sheets of paper. “Sometimes,” he said, “selling investments means seducing your client. Really making love to them with your voice. You understand?”

Elise nodded slowly. “I think so?”

“I have a folder here of potential investors that none of my employees have been able to crack. If you can sell to just one, I will give you a job.” Ashton pulled out a single sheet of paper from the folder and offered it to Elise.

“So all I have to do is ask this Mr. Oyoki to invest in your company or whatever?” she asked.

Ashton nodded.  He reached back down into the drawer and pulled out another sheet of paper. “Here, this is the script I give all of my cold callers. Just read what’s on the paper, but remember, do it like you are making love to him.”

Elise took the sheet of paper and looked it over. She shrugged. “Seems easy enough,” she asserted.

Ashton vaguely wondered just how much phone sex she’d had to be so nonchalant about this.  He pushed the phone across the desk toward her. “Make the call here so I can listen and correct you where it’s needed,” he ordered.

Elise nodded. She picked up the phone and began to dial the number on Mr. Oyoki’s paper.

“You need to dial 9 first to get an outside line,” Ashton said.

Elise hung up the phone and picked it up again to redial the number correctly. Ashton watched her mouthing the words as she waited for someone to answer the phone.

“Hello, may I please speak with Mr. Oyoki?” Elise asked. She paused, presumably while whoever had answered the phone for Mr. Oyoki went to retrieve him. “Hello, Mr. Oyoki?” she said. “Yes, this is Elise with AJ Brokerage International.”

Ashton watched her carefully.  He was drawn in by her breathy voice and her attention to pronouncing every syllable of every word. He watched her smile.  He watched the way she curled her hair around her finger repeatedly. She laughed and even took things completely off script.

“Well, Oki, I’m not sure that my boss would like it if I saw you outside of the office.  But I might be able to arrange it. You know, I do love a man who knows how to spend his money,” she said and followed up with a girlish laugh.  Ashton fought the urge to roll his eyes. 
Of course
she loved a man who knew how to spend his money.  His father was case in point.

“Well how about you show me how you spend that money and then we’ll talk?” she offered. “Sure. This afternoon?” she asked. “I think that would be a great start.”

By the time Elise had hung up the phone she had secured an investment from one of the most stubborn investors in the company’s portfolio of leads. Ashton was astounded. He had never expected Elise to get Mr. Oyoki on the phone, let alone secure an investment.

“You’re hired,” he said, handing her the manila folder full of leads.

Ashton gazed over at Elise sitting at the small table in the corner of his office. Telling her there was no open space available out on the floor, he set her up in the corner of his own office for the time being. The truth was that he wanted to watch Elise at work. It wasn’t because he didn’t trust her; he more than enjoyed listening to her talk on the phone with investors. He liked the way her voice ever so sweetly convinced the hard ass on the other end of the line to give up millions. He wondered if that was how Sarah Anne had convinced his father to marry her.

“Sorry again about the desk. I’ll have something more professional set up for you by next week,” Ashton said.  If he had gone through this trouble to help her in hopes of his father finally appreciating him, he had to do a good job of it.  He couldn’t very well make it obvious he was keeping there for his own benefit.

Elise turned around and said, “It’s okay! I don’t mind. I’m just grateful you gave me a chance,” she said. “Not many other people would even give me an interview after they found out about…well, you know.”  

Ashton shook his head. He didn’t know because she hadn’t yet told him why she had been fired from her previous job. “I actually don’t know.  Why
did
you get fired?” he asked.  He had been somewhat curious before but, not caring all that much about her, he hadn’t tried to find out. 
Now
his curiosity had grown.

He saw Elise’s cheeks beginning to glow red and her eyes shifted down to the carpet. “I probably shouldn’t tell you. You know, now that you’re my boss and all.”

“As your boss,” Ashton said, “I’d really like to know.”   That was not entirely truthful.  He wanted to know more for his own personal knowledge than as an employer.  Her behavior made it all so intriguing.

Elise sighed heavily. “I got caught fucking my boss.”

Ashton frowned but quickly tried to control his facial expression.  He was surprised, especially at how bluntly she had put it.  What he also noticed was she seemed pretty unhappy about it.  “And HE fired you for that?” he asked.  

Elise shook her head. “No, his wife fired me for that.”

Ashton couldn’t hold back the laughter.  He had tried to control his reaction but this was just too much. Elise smiled weakly.  Now he understood why practically being hired for phone sex here wasn’t such a big deal to her.

“I can see why she would fire you for that,” Ashton said. “But don’t worry.  I don’t think fucking the boss is going to be a problem here.”

Elise looked at him with a genuine look of shock on her face. “What do you mean?” she asked.  He could tell she had taken that statement in a completely different way than he had meant it.  She probably thought he was propositioning her.  

“I mean, being that I’m your step-brother, I don’t think you will be interested in fucking the boss. Therefore, fucking the boss won’t be a problem for you in this job.”

“Oh.  Right,” Elise said. “I thought you meant something else.” She giggled.  He looked at her curiously.  From her initial shock he thought she was offended but now he was not so sure.  He was finding it difficult to gauge her attitude toward these types of things.  What he really wondered was why she had slept with her old boss to begin with.

By early afternoon of her first day Elise had already secured three hard to get clients in addition to Mr. Oyoki. Ashton, on the other hand, had checked absolutely nothing off his to do list. He had spent all day listening to Elise convincing every client that she spoke to that he was her ideal man.  Aside from being effective, he had to admit she was really hard working.  This shocked him, quite frankly.  He had always thought of her as someone who worked to keep up appearances but really just wanted his father’s money.  Now he was starting to think his inkling she really cared about his father was spot on and she was just a hard worker.  Maybe she had never worked in anything better because nobody would give her the chance.

“Done!” Elise said putting the receiver of the phone back in the cradle.  “Mr. Allen will be calling first thing in the morning with a half million dollar investment.”

Ashton stared at her open mouthed. While Mr. Oyoki had been their hardest to get client, Mr. Allen had been the one with the most money to invest.

“He said it’s just a trial, but I think I can convince him to make a bigger first investment if I talk to him tomorrow,” Elise said confidently.

Ashton continued to look at her in disbelief. “Then, by all means, make sure that you talk to him tomorrow.”

Elise smiled. “I like working here,” she admitted. “I feel like I’m kind of good at something.”  Though she never came off as self-conscious, Ashton had the feeling she had never been made to believe she was valuable in the work place.  And having sex with her ex-boss certainly wouldn’t help that.

Ashton nodded. “You are kind of good at something.”  He slid his hand under his desk to try quieting the erection growing in his pants. “You have the perfect voice for sales and you are great at convincing men to part with their money.”  He found her phone voice quite irresistible and it certainly helped she was very physically attractive.  He just had never paid much attention to her out of pure resentment. 

Elise giggled. “I learned it from my mom.”

Ashton didn’t know whether or not he should acknowledge her comment.  She had obviously forgotten who she was talking to.  That was the last thing he wanted to hear.  It only reaffirmed his belief that Sarah Anne being just another gold-digger.

“Well,” Ashton said, “if you’d like to take a break and go down to the coffee shop, I’ll give you cash to get us both a coffee.”

Elise stood up and stretched her arms above her head, sticking out her perky breasts. “Sure! I could use stretching my legs anyway!”

Reaching in to his pocket, Ashton pulled out a twenty-dollar bill. “I’ll take a quad cappuccino,” he said. “Get yourself whatever you’d like.”

Elise took the money and seemingly skipped out of the room, closing the door behind her.  She was certainly a lot more grateful and a lot less entitled than he had assumed she would be. When he was certain she had gone, he opened a drawer in his desk and pulled out a reel of tape. He wasn’t sure that it was nearly strong enough to hold his phone under the desk, but it was all he had. Grabbing his cell phone from the desktop, he muted it completely and opened his dictation app. With his phone and the tape in hand, Ashton walked over to Elise’s desk and began trying to adhere his phone underneath her desk.

It didn’t matter that Elise was his stepsister; Ashton had to get a recording of her breathy voice. Every word she spoke while he sat at his desk made his cock ache and he wanted to take that experience home with him. He felt devious, taping his phone underneath his stepsister’s desk with plans of jerking off to her voice later on but he rationalized it wasn’t half as bad as jerking off while she was in the same room.  He had never expected to be so attracted to her.

Once his phone was secured under the desk, Ashton sat back down at his own desk and opened up an internet browser. Elise would be gone for at least another fifteen minutes. Pulling out his keyboard, Ashton typed in the website and quickly muted the sound on his monitor. The site was already cached in to his browser and took just seconds to load up hundreds of explicit pictures. Ashton glanced over at the door quickly before unbuttoning his pants and reaching inside his boxers. After one more glance at the door, he pulled out his already throbbing cock.