Claimed by the Billionaire: Seduction #1 (2 page)

Trying to get Greg to
focus on his math homework was impossible and I felt as though I would have
more success fighting a hyena with my bare hands.

“This is stupid!” He
exclaimed for roughly the billionth time as he tapped his pencil against his
paper.

I looked up from
chopping onions needed for my pasta sauce for dinner and sighed, “Greg. You are
going to sit there until it is done. You know how to do it, what is the
problem?”

“It’s stupid.”

“Stop. Get to work. I
don’t want to revoke your TV privileges.”

Greg muttered under his
breath as he started working on the next problem. Trying to get that kid to
focus was impossible but I didn’t want to put him on medication. I had been trying
out relaxing herbal teas first. Cathy thought I was nuts (“Just put him on
meds!”) but I had been on medication after I had lost my husband and hated how
tired and dragged down I felt on them. Greg was only ten, way too young for
that sort of thing.

Lost in thought, I
didn’t realize my cell phone was going off until Greg huffed loudly, claiming
it was ruining his concentration. It wasn’t a number I knew.

“Hello, Serena Warden
speaking.”

“Serena? It’s Janine.”

“Oh, hello —“

Janine cut me off,
“Listen, we’re offering you the position here.”

I stopped short,
“What?”

“We’re offering you the
position here.” Janine said slower, as though she was talking to someone very
dim.

“I don’t understand.” I
said bluntly.

“The choice was taken
out of my hands,” Janine said, “Are you taking it or not?”

I couldn’t believe what
I was hearing. Mr. Gable must have requested me personally.

I paused and then
spoke, “I told Mr. Gable that I am not —“

“Mr. Gable requested I
tell you that he is not hiring you out of ‘pity’ but because he thinks you
would be good at the job.” Janine sounded as though she couldn’t disagree more
with the words coming out of her mouth.

“I’ll take it.” I said.

***

“I move in a week,”
Janine was saying, “So I can train you for then but after that, you’re on your
own.”

“Okay.” I said.

“We’ll run through the
basics, but I’m working half days this week as well. So after one pm, you’re on
your own.” Her tone did not invite the notion of calling with questions after
one pm.

“Okay.” I said,
although I didn’t think Janine was listening.

“This is your desk,
obviously. Like I said in the interview, you’re the point person but don’t
think that means you can bother Mr. Gable whenever you want. He likes his
privacy and doesn’t want to be bothered.”

“Of course.”

“Sit down here at the
computer and I’ll run you through some things.”

Janine’s idea of
running through things was going at them at a rapid fire pace. It was clear she
didn’t like me. I just wasn’t sure why. I could only guess Janine wanted one of
the other, more qualified woman in the job but instead it had been me. She
probably didn’t like after working here for so long she didn’t even get to pick
her successor. And it wasn’t as though she could take it out on Mr. Gable. No,
so I would have to do. I tried to keep notes the best I could but by eleven am
I was cursing myself for agreeing to the position out of a piqued interest in
why Mr. Gable had requested me.

At two pm promptly,
Janine stood up, taking her purse.

“I’m leaving for the
day. You can managed until 5, right?”

“Sure.” I said, not
meaning it.

“It should be a quiet
afternoon. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

With a flip of her
sleek ponytail, Janine walked towards the elevator, not looking back. After the
elevator doors shut, I was hit with how quiet it was up here. Mr. Gable hadn’t
come out of his office once. I spent time on the computer, trying to learn
where Janine had organized everything. At three pm, the phone suddenly rang on
the desk, coming to life in such a manner that I was sure it had woken up the
world.

“I need to talk to Mr.
Gable.” Came a woman’s voice, slightly high pitched and sounding annoyed.

How had she gotten
through to his direct line? The phone number we have out went to the desk on
the first floor and was redirected from there. But the lady downstairs hadn’t
buzzed through to her telling her someone was on the line. This lady could get
through directly. She must be important but Janine had said to screen all calls
—

“Hello?” She snapped.

“Uhm, ma’am, can you
please tell me the nature of your call? Mr. Gable is in a meeting right now —“

“No, he isn’t,” The
woman snapped again, getting more and more irate and I found myself getting
flustered, “Just transfer me already.”

I panicked and
transferred the call, patching it through directly. It had to have been
important, she had had the direct line, right? I heard the phone ring three
times in Mr. Gable’s office and then he picked up. I couldn’t hear him but I
stared at my computer screen, hoping against hope that I hadn’t made a mistake
and berating myself for getting flustered off of one annoyed woman. What a
fool! Of course now everything Janine told me was coming back to me.  I
wanted to just get up and quit now but it was as though my feet were made out
of cement.

Mr. Gable’s office door
opened and he came out. He looked more polished than the day I had seen him at
my interview. His hair was slicked back and his suit was done up perfectly,
with a light blue tie accenting the rest of it just right. To put it bluntly,
he was gorgeous.

“Serena,” He said
quietly, “May I ask why you transferred that call to me?”

Shit. I froze, a
million different reasons coming into my head — all more stupid than the last.
He must have seen the look on my face because he went on.

“That was my ex-wife,”
He said and I knew I had messed up majorly, “Did Janine not tell you about my
ex-wife?”

Janine had told me
about his ex-wife. She told me they had been high school sweethearts who had
broken up but found each other again once Mr. Gable had come into some money.
He had caught her cheating on him after three years of marriage and divorced
her but the divorce was ugly and she was hanging out to get as much as she
could.

“Do not transfer the
calls,” Janine had said strictly, “Field it the best you can and take a message
but don’t even bother giving it to him. He only goes through the lawyers.”

And I had let her
through without even asking for her name. I had messed up on the easiest part
of the job which was getting a name, taking a message or just letting the lady
yell at me. Mr. Gable was looking at me now and I wished I could be anywhere
else.

“She did, sir.”

“Mind telling me then
why you patched her call through?”

I gulped and thought of
lying but then thought the better of it at the last minute, “She was rude and I
panicked and just sent her call through.”

Mr. Gable paused, as if
thinking this over and looked at me, “She is always rude.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Serena, please make
sure to follow the correct procedures in the future….especially where my
ex-wife is concerned. Do you understand?”

I felt about two feet
tall at that moment, “Yes sir.”

Mr. Gable looked at me
for another long moment and I tried to will myself to look back at him. He was
incredibly handsome, I found myself thinking, even if he was disappointed in
me. It would have been better if he had yelled, I thought, instead of calmly
stating the fact I was basically an idiot. He turned around and went back into
his office with a small click.

I was expecting to get
reamed by a monster truck by Janine the next day over the ex-wife debacle. I
prepped myself all night for it, barely getting any sleep. But when I came into
work the next day, she didn’t say anything, just told me to sit down so she
could go over something else with me.  I did as she said but I felt
confused. He didn’t tell her? Didn’t he want her to yell at me and go over it
in detail so I know how I messed up everything for the future?

But Janine didn’t say a
word and instead just kept “training” me. I felt confused pretty quickly as
well as distracted by why Mr. Gable didn’t tell Janine. When she breezed out at
one pm, I was left yet again in the quiet of the room. I sighed and went back
to the email account, deciding to start moving reading through them and doing
what I could. I was only at it when ten minutes when Mr. Gable’s office door
opened.

He stopped by my desk,
looking at me, “Would you like to come with me to lunch?”

“What?” I said
stupidly.

He looked amused,
“Lunch?”

“Uhm, sure.” I replied,
clumsily standing up and grabbing my bag.

“There’s a place just
across the street.”

I knew of it — a nice
French café — and I hoped I didn’t have to pay. We started walking to the
elevator together. The doors slid shut and I realized it was incredibly awkward
to be standing in an elevator with him. Did he feel it too? I snuck a glance at
his face, which looked as though it had been chiseled from fine marble. He
didn’t look like it felt awkward to him. But why would it feel awkward for him
when he probably met with millionaires on a daily basis and I was just his
secretary?

We walked in silence to
the café across the street. I wanted to talk but had no idea what to say to
someone so rich and I had lost everything. The gap in our wages made me feel
almost uncomfortable.  When we stepped inside the café, I was charmed by
how quaint and lovely it was. It had been a long time since I had gone out to
eat and the soft pastel colors of the place were comforting.

“Your usual, Mr.
Gable?” said the host and he nodded in reply.

Usual place — for some
reason my heart dropped a little bit. So he came here often. I realized with a
start that I had been hoping he didn’t bring everyone here or he didn’t come
here often. Why did I even care? But I did care and as we sat down in a small
table in the back, I couldn’t help but feel myself put up a barrier. I was
handed a small menu and started to look it over, pretending it was the most
interesting menu I had ever seen in my life.

“I have a sweet tooth,”
Mr. Gable said in a low tone, as if he was telling me a secret, “I love
chocolate croissants.”

I did too but I didn’t
feel like admitting it. I still felt sore that he had invited me, as if
throwing a dog a bone and for other reasons I didn’t understand, I felt upset
that he came here enough to have a usual table. I had thought the invite was
out of the norm for him but I was just being stupid. I looked back down at the
menu but I could feel his eyes still resting on me. In spite of myself, I
looked up at him and locked my eyes with his. They were a deep blue, I
realized, which contrasted with his hair color.  My skin felt like it was
tingling.

“Do you know why I
invited you for lunch?” He asked me.

Why did he pose
everything to me as though it was a question for someone very dim?

“No.” I said.

“With Janine leaving
soon, I wanted to make sure we were on the same page with processes and how
things run.”

“I won’t let your
ex-wife through again,” I said, apologizing with my tone, “I’m sorry I got
flustered.”

Mr. Gable smiled and it
disarmed me, “It’s okay. It was your first day.”

The waiter came by and
I ordered coffee and a cannoli while he ordered tea and a chocolate croissant.

He continued on, “I
wanted to let you know that I am going to be hard on you, Serena. But it isn’t
because I don’t like you. Do you know why I hired you?”

“No,” I admitted, “But
I’ve wondered.”

“You don’t have the
skills the other applicants did and you probably wouldn’t be able to handle a
job of this caliber with the interview you had with Janine,” I guessed we were
starting right now with being hard on me since the comments stung even though
they were true, “But you were the only one who gave me a glimpse of your actual
personality in your interview.”

“Wait,” I said, “You
busted in on each interview like that?”

He nodded, “Yes,” The
coffees were placed in front of us and he took a sip, “I did. It let me know
which applicants would work the best with my personality. And you not wanting
the job because of your family and walking out — I need someone like that in
that position. Someone who won’t be afraid to be tough and stern. I saw that in
the interview but I haven’t seen it since.”

“It’s not like you’ve
been around.” I said and then closed my eyes briefly. What was I doing?
Mouthing off, basically. I seriously needed to stop myself before I got fired.

But Mr. Gable just
chuckled and looked at me again, my whole body tingling, “That is true, I
suppose. Which is why we’re here.”

Our food was put down
in front of us and we ate in silence for a while. 

Finally, he resumed,
“You’re going to hate me for a long time, Serena. Janine did. I was hard on her
but she was excellent. You aren’t starting off where she did. I knew when I
hired you that you would be behind the other applicants but I think you can do
it,” He locked eyes with me again and I got a swooping feeling in my stomach,
“You just have to listen to me.”