Guarding His Heart (3 page)

Chapter Three

Leo

“Any coffee, Sir?” Hannah stood at the entry to my door with an apron tied around her waist and a challenge in her eyes.

“Why, yes. I’d love that.” I looked up from my desk and nodded at her. I looked down for a second to hide my grin. I saw the disappointment in her eyes as she walked towards me. She pulled a notepad out of her pocket and a pen from behind her ear.

“What would you like?” She chewed on the pen and stared at me. I knew she was trying to get a reaction out of me.

“I’ll take a latte, one sugar and a bagel with cream cheese.” I replied without blinking or commenting on the fact that she was dressed like a waitress.

“Anything else, Sir?”

“No, that’s all. Danke Schon, Fraulein.”

“Fraulein?” She repeated, her voice dropping and her eyes widened.

“That’s thank you waitress in German.” I grinned at her and she dropped the notepad on my table. “At least I think that’s what it means.”

“Excuse me?” She leaned towards me, her eyes angry and her breath coming fast. “I’m not a waitress. I’m not here to serve you.”

“Hey, I didn’t know what to think.” I shrugged. “I wasn’t sure if you were trying to be a waitress or if you were playing some kinky game that I wasn’t aware of.”

“What kinky game?” She frowned.

“You know - role play or something.” I licked my lips. “I’m not saying I wouldn’t be down¸ but not in the office.”

“You’re a pig.” She stood back up and ripped the apron off and threw it to the ground.

“Last time I checked I didn’t oink.”

“Ugh.” She glared at me and walked back to my doorway.

“Hannah,” I called out softly. “Wait.”

“Yes?” She turned around and waited. I stared at her angry, yet still beautiful face and her heaving chest.

“Are you still going to get my coffee?” I asked and I watched her eyes narrowing at me. “That is still a part of your job description.” I finished slowly and I saw an angry red hue rising in her face. “Thanks. I’ll take a plain bagel with cream cheese as well. Toasted.”

She turned around and left the room without a word. I laughed as soon as she exited the room. I knew most people would have been uncomfortable working with an assistant that hated them. In fact, she would be considered insubordinate and fired pretty quickly from most jobs. However, I liked the
fact that she wasn’t scared to let her feelings show. I knew that she was upset because she had missed out on the position due to me. I agreed that it was unfair. However, that wasn’t going to stop me from having some fun with her. She was going to make life at the office very, very entertaining.

I checked my email and sighed as I saw a message had just come in from my dad. If he was going to be on my ass everyday this job was going to be a lot harder. I opened the email and froze. I was needed for a business trip at the end of the next week. What? I didn’t even know what was going on and I had to go on a business trip? I waited for Hannah to come back into the room and sat back staring at the screen feeling irritated. What was I really doing here? I felt like I was playing the part of the ambitious son. I just wasn’t interested in mergers and acquisitions. At least, I didn’t feel like I was.

“Here’s your coffee, Sir.” Hannah returned to my office about ten minutes later without her waitress uniform. She handed me a white snoopy cup with lipstick on the rim and some packets of sugar.

“What’s this?” I frowned, staring up into her expectant brown eyes.

“Your coffee.”

“This looks like someone else’s cup. Someone’s used mug to be precise.” I stared into the mug and stuck my pinky finger into the coffee. “And the coffee’s cold.”

“Oops.” She shrugged and my eyes found her lips and stared for a few seconds. A light bulb went off in my head as I realized the red lipstick on the side of the cup matched the shade on her lips.

“You can have the real thing you know.” I sat back and smiled at her. Her expression changed from one of defiance to confusion.

“What real thing?”

“My lips against yours.”

“Huh?” I saw her fingers smoothing down her skirt as she stared at me.

“You drank from my cup, I’m assuming because you wanted my lips to touch yours, in whatever way that they could.” I winked at her and waved my hand. “If you want to come over here, I can let you see what it feels like to have your lips pressed against mine properly. That way the lipstick will be on my lips and not on my cup.”

“I don’t want to kiss you.” She blushed and I could see that I’d broken her composure.

“Are you sure about that? Maybe you’re feeling mad at me because you need a good kissing.” I stood up. “Maybe once we get that out of the way, you’ll be feeling better.”

“I don’t think that will help.” She shook her head and took a step back. “And I think it’s rude of you to suggest it.”

“As rude as you drinking from my coffee?” I stopped in front of her and grinned. “I think you’ll find my lips are a lot sweeter than coffee, but I suppose that depends if you like it sweet or bitter.”

“I don’t like it either way.” She frowned. “You’re so inappropriate.”

“Pot, pot.” I shouted out. “Kettle’s calling, will you answer?”

“Funny,” She smiled reluctantly. “I don’t answer to pot, but I don’t mind calling you kettle.”

“You can call me anything you want in the bedroom.”

“You’re so immature. I can’t believe you got this job over me.”

“Oh boy. Have you been speaking to Lucky?” I gasped. “What did she tell you about me?”

“Who’s Lucky?” She sounded annoyed. “Let me guess, some ex you slept with and then ditched.”

“Not quite.” I laughed. “Lucky’s my best friends’ wife. And I’m pretty certain she thinks I’m a little immature as well.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.” She rolled her eyes. “And just in case you didn’t know. I wouldn’t make moves on your friends’ wife, that’s kind of a dick move. Just in case you were thinking of doing something like that.”

“Why would I go for her, when I have you at my beck and call?” I grinned and walked towards her. She kept stepping back until she was against the door. I stopped in front of her and placed my hands above her shoulders
and leaned in. “I don’t mess with married women.” I moved my face closer to hers and whispered, so that she could feel my breath on her lips. “I prefer to have fun with smart-mouthed assistants that like to role-play and talkback.”

“I’m not going to have any fun with you.” She whispered back and I moved back and laughed.

“So you admit you’re smart-mouthed, like to role-play and like to talkback?”

“I admit I’m smart, yes.” She made a face at me and pushed past me. “Now are we going to work or do you want to sit around and play games all day? I mean I know you’re the boss's son, but I would assume you need to actually get something done, right?”

“Very funny.” I turned around and walked back to my desk. She was correct of course. There was a lot of work to do and I had to start somewhere. “We have a business trip next week. We’ll be flying to New York.”

“We?” She frowned and I could see her nibbling her lower lip. I moved my eyes away from her mouth as she was starting to turn me on.

“Yes, we. You’re my assistant, right?”

“Yeah, but assistants don’t normally—”

“Stop right there.” I brushed my hands. “I don’t care what normally happens.”

“I’m not a normal type of guy.”

“That I knew.” Her eyes looked me over from head to toe and she smirked at me as her eyes met mine again. I smiled inwardly at her little digs. Did she really think she was getting the better of me?

“I’m glad you knew that.” I smiled softly. “That will make life easier for the both of us. I’ve got a meeting with my dad in half an hour. When I’m gone, I want you to go through the Martin Corp files. We’re meeting with the CEO Rob Martin next week. I want you find out everything there is to know about Martin Corp.” I frowned as I noticed she wasn’t writing anything down. “Are you getting all of this?”

“Rob Martin has been the CEO of Martin Corp for three years. He took over the company from his father. His father took it over from his father. They are all undergraduates of Harvard and they all went to Yale Law School. Martin Corp had a net loss of $500 million last year and they sold five TV stations they owned in the Midwest.” She paused and looked at me. “Rob doesn’t want to sell the family company, but they are looking at a net loss of another $300 million this year and they have seen shares drop by 75%. Investors and shareholders are leaving in flocks and if something doesn’t change they will have to liquidate and disband. He wants a partner to keep them in business. Partners want to get rid of the Martin name.” She stopped and looked up at me. “Shall I continue?”

“You know your stuff.” I nodded slowly, impressed at her business acumen.

“That’s why I was nearly hired for your job.” She said dryly.

“Touché.” I bit my lower lip. “Well if you play your hands right, you might still get a chance to advance.”

“Uh huh.” She mumbled and I could tell she wanted to say something else.

“What is it?” I asked her softly. “I can tell that you’re dying to say something else.”

“I don’t care about advancing if it means I have to sleep with the bosses son.”

“Sleeping with me wouldn’t get you an advancement.” I smiled. “It might get you a couple of days in late to work, but that’s about it.”

“Ooh, now the option looks so much more attractive.” She rolled her eyes.

“Though, I wouldn’t advise you sleep with me.” I grinned. “I wouldn’t want things to be awkward between us when I stopped sleeping with you.”

“When you stopped sleeping with me?” Her jaw dropped. “Really?”

“Really?” I grinned. “I’m not the sort of guy that has relationships and you seem like the clingy type. Things could get awkward if we had sex. I wouldn’t want you trying to poison me.”

“You’d be so lucky.” She shook her head furiously. I watched her slinky long hair covering her face and imagined it trailing along my chest as she bent down to suck me.

“I think I would.” I mumbled to myself and sat down. Maybe I needed to stop with the game. It was fun, but I didn’t want to start turning myself on. I didn’t want it to get to the point where I was no longer teasing her. Teasing was fun. And bedding her would be even more fun, but I knew sex with my assistant would be the worst thing I could do. And I wasn’t lying when I said that I thought things would be terribly awkward once our weekend of fun was done. Hannah, for all her bravado, seemed the sort of girl to take things very personally. There was no way I wanted to hit it and quit it with a girl that worked for me. That just equaled trouble.

“What else did you need me to do for you, Mr. Maxwell?” Hannah’s voice was prim and proper as she put her hair up in a bun. She looked like a sexy librarian with the hair up, but I didn’t tell her that the look turned me on even more than her hair being down did. When it was up, I could imagine being the one to pull out the pins and turn her from dowdy to sexy.

“I want you to figure out Rob Martin’s likes and dislikes. Find out what’s going on in his personal life. Find out if it’s always been his goal to take-over the company or if he’s doing it out of a sense of duty.” I paused as I watched her scribbling quickly in her notepad. “I want to know what he does in his
spare time. I want to know which companies he cares about the most. I want to know the breakdown in revenue for each region and for each company. I want to know if he’s going to be willing to sell Martin Corp for $500 Million and walk away from the company.”

“You’re going to make a bid.” Her eyes narrowed as she stared at me. “I thought...”

“I know what you thought.” I grinned. “You thought I didn’t know anything. You think I took this job knowing nothing. I might be the boss’s son. And I might have taken the job you’re also qualified for, but I do know my shit, Hannah Will. My dad’s a successful businessman. Trust me, he never would have hired me if I didn’t know my shit.” I watched Hannah’s shoulders deflate slightly as she realized that I wasn’t a complete dumbass. I’m sure she realized now that as chagrined as she had been, she couldn’t say that someone not as qualified as her had taken the job. I knew my shit. I’d grown up with a dad obsessed with business. I’d been reading the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal since I was a kid. Yeah, I preferred surfing and I liked playing my guitar, but that didn’t mean I didn’t know my bonds from my stocks. That didn’t mean I didn’t look at the Nasdaq and the Dow every morning with my coffee. I didn’t want to pull rank on Hannah and I truly liked her, but she had to realize and remember who was boss. At the end of the day, I needed her to do a job and I needed her to respect me.

“Yes Sir.” She nodded her head. “Is there anything else you need from me before the meeting?”

“I need your cellphone number and personal email address.”

“My personal email address?” She frowned. “Why not my business email address?”

“Because everything I have to say can’t be viewed by HR.” I winked at her and watched as she left the room in a huff and a small smile. Just because it would be unprofessional to sleep with her didn’t mean I couldn’t still flirt. I’d try to not let it get out of hand, but she was going to make it very difficult for me to keep my hands to myself, if she kept giving me those ‘I want you to fuck me eyes’.