ROMANCE: CLEAN ROMANCE: Summer Splash! (Sweet Inspirational Contemporary Romance) (New Adult Clean Fantasy Short Stories) (21 page)

“Oh, I beg to differ, my dear. You have the perfect resume for it. You are more than qualified with your schooling and you definitely have the personality for it. How about this: I will give you a tour of where you will be working and we will go over what your responsibilities are. I also spoke with Jase about salary and we both agreed five per week. How does that sound to you?”

“Five hundred dollars a week? That’s great.” She could finally eat well and maybe move into a decent apartment instead of the little studio she stayed in. Maybe she should give it a try.

“Although that would be better for our pocket, the position does not pay five hundred dollars a week.”

“Oh?” She wore the same crestfallen look for the second time in thirty minutes.

“No, my dear. It pays
five thousand
a week. You will be an executive assistant to two of the busiest attorneys in the city. You will not be working on one of the lower floors. Your pay will be much higher than the position you applied for.”

Melissa felt the lump appear in her throat as her eyes bugged almost out of their sockets. Was this guy for real? There was no way in the world she could turn it down. “I’ll take it.” She blurted the words out without thinking and then looked at the devilish twinkle in his eyes. Lord, what did she get herself into? She would be working for two magnificent looking men and she could just imagine what the torture was going to be like being close to them without touching them.

“Good. Let me show you where you will be working for the time being. We are both looking for someone, so if you wouldn’t mind helping us both out a little right now, that would be great. Or you can choose who you would rather work for and we could go from there. It would just really help us both out right now.”

“That sounds good. I mean I think I can keep up with both of you.” Her smile stuck on her face as she turned and looked at him. Heat radiated from his eyes and she thought about what she said. She instantly blushed and turned away from him before he could see it.

Matthew smiled even more when she turned from him but not before he saw the blush creeping up onto her cheeks. Her words went straight to his dick and he felt himself harden as he thought of bending her over his desk. He wondered what kind of underwear she had on and what color they were. He refrained from asking her, knowing that would come at a later date. “I am glad to hear it. Now come, I will show you where you will sit.” He would love for her to sit on his lap or his face he thought. He physically shook his head to erase the thoughts. His pants were getting tighter and he knew if he kept it up he would bust the seams, not to mention put them both in an awkward position.

As Melissa looked around, she saw that the whole floor consisted of two rooms, one on each side of a long wide hall. Straight ahead was a long desk that matched the one in the lobby downstairs but much smaller in length. Right before the desk were two doors. Each door held the names of the two men who ran the office. “Wow. So the only offices up here are the two of yours?”

“Yes. This will be your desk. Now I warn you there may be some long evenings spent here when we have a big case. So if there are children involved or a husband at home, perhaps now would be the time to let us know if working nights are a problem.” He hadn’t seen a ring on her finger but he wanted to be sure.

“Oh no, I am not married or seeing anyone, so there is no problem staying late. Oh, and no children either.”

“Great!” He rubbed his hands together with glee and realized how foolish he must look. Lowering his hands back to his sides he gestured to the desk. “We will have a computer, printer and fax machine in here by tomorrow morning. We have our own in our offices, but I would prefer a large one out here for your use. You will also be given an iPad and laptop. Phone lines are hooked up and Jase is already calling the consultants to come in tonight to have everything set up.”

“Great.” Then she realized that Mr. Dunbar and Mr. Paterson had spoken on the phone way before they offered her the job, which meant they had already thought she would agree to the offer. “You had a high assumption that I would take the job, didn’t you?”

“Just call it wishful thinking.” He winked at her and she thought she swooned a little bit. She really needed to get hold of herself.

“Mr. Dunbar what kind of assignments will I be doing?”

“First of all, no “mister” stuff. It sounds like you are talking to my father. I am Matt, and just to let you know, there is no “mister” for Jason either. He is just plain Jason or Jase.”

“Ok. Matt, what will you need me to do?” She knew this time she saw his eyes darken with interest. She may have been able to blow it off earlier, but this time his eyes roamed her body before coming back to rest on her eyes with a heat so intense she thought it burned her.

He turned abruptly before answering her. “It will be some filing and copying, and taking a lot of notes. We take the big cases ourselves and both of us have chicken scratch for handwriting. You will also be answering the phone, although Patricia knows not to send anything up to our offices unless its family. And sometimes I don’t want the calls then either.” She laughed at his grimace. “So, you can start tomorrow. Jase is out the rest of the day, but we will both be in tomorrow morning. How about a regular schedule of 8:00 to 5:00 and on the late nights you can come in late the next day?”

“That sounds perfect. I guess I will see you tomorrow then. Thank you so much.”

“No, my dear, thank you. You have just saved two grown men from crying like babies with temper tantrums the next few days. We just took on three cases between the two of us and they are huge. We will talk about that more tomorrow. Come on. I will take you to the lobby. We will also get you a key card. You have to have one to reach the top floor.”

Melissa nodded as she followed him to the elevator. She didn’t even notice the elevator jerk, she was so happy thinking to herself of all the things she could now afford. Hell, she could get a whole house if she wanted to now. Matthew held her elbow as they stepped off the elevator. She looked up to meet the glaring eyes of Patricia. She turned to see Matthew smile down at her. His thumb caressed the crease of her elbow as he spoke to her. “Until tomorrow then, dear. Have a good night.”

“And you as well Mr. D…..” She instantly stopped at the slip up when she saw his stern look. “I mean you too, Matt.”

“That’s better.” He turned to walk back into the elevator.

Melissa walked outside and for the first time in a long time she smiled, feeling truly happy. She had to call her mother as soon as she got home. She was never going to believe what happened to her today. Crossing the road to her little beat up car, she slid into the driver’s seat. She leaned forward to look up at the tall skyscraper. She felt goose bumps rise on her arms again but pushed the feelings aside as she started the car and put it into drive before pulling from the parking space. She passed a row of townhouses that she had thought were grand but never imagined she could afford. Now she could. That night she took the last $20 she had and splurged on dinner. For the first time in a long time she had a good dinner. Pushing the can of pasta to the side she started cutting the potatoes in chunks and put them in the pan with oil and seasoning. Pulling one of the chicken breasts from the package she put the others in individual bags planting them in the freezer. She hummed to herself as she cooked.

Her little studio was soon brimming with the exotic smell of food cooking. She was glad she brought the little George Foreman grill her mother had bought her when she went off to college. Her mother served a hard life. Being a single parent of three children, she still had one at home and worked two jobs just to keep food on the table. She had dropped out of 10
th
grade. Back then, being in school and pregnant wasn’t looked upon as it was now. She had married Melissa’s father that year after her parents’ death and had soon become pregnant. Melissa sighed when she thought of her father. He had been a great dad until the day of the cave took many lives in the miner town they lived in, including her fathers.

*****

The next morning Melissa decided on a pair of black dress pants and a blue sweater. She of course wore her black heels as well, but it was mainly because they were her only pair, not just her favorite. She parked outside the building and walked into the lobby preparing for the onslaught of the angry woman at the front desk. She was surprised when the woman wasn’t there. Instead there sat a pleasant brunette with a large smile. Melissa looked down to see a wedding ring on her hand and knew this woman wouldn’t be a problem. She walked to the desk and smiled back at the woman.

“Hello. I am Melissa Jones. Today is my first day but I don’t think I can reach my floor.”

“Oh yes. This is for you Ms. Jones. It is a card for the elevator. Mr. Paterson said that you should know how to use it, but if you need me to show you, I would be more than happy to do so.”

Oh no, thank you. I think I can do it. Have a nice day.” She smiled at the woman before she turned to walk away. She was smiling and had a little spring to her step this morning. She glided to the elevator and stepped inside without shaking. She was still apprehensive.
Fears don’t just fade away overnight, you know
she thought to herself. She held on to the rail and as it began to jerk, she started breathing harder again. She could do it; this would be a trip she would have to make at least twice a day now. As the elevator jerked to a stop she slid the card in the hole and watched as the elevator rose to the top floor.

Melissa stepped from the elevator to see the two gorgeous men at the desk where she would be working. Jason stood while Matt had his ass firmly placed on the desktop. They both turned when they heard the elevator.

“You made it.” Matt said as he stood.

Jase looked down at his watch. “And early too. Quite impressive Melissa.”

“Thank you sir.” She smiled at them both with confidence even though her legs were shaking so bad she was sure they could hear her knees knocking together.

“Hmmmm. I like that sound.”

“I’m sorry?” She said with a quizzical look to her expression.

“Oh nothing. Come, I will show you the ropes this morning. Matt has a few meetings so it will just be the two of us today, which is how it will be most of the time. You will only be here normally with one of us. Unless it is one of those late night circumstances and we are working the same case.”

“Oh, ok.” She didn’t know what he had been talking about at first, but decided to forget it. She walked over as he held a chair out for her to sit at the desk. There were two chairs here today and they were elegant and large. They were the type of chairs you only saw at expensive executive desks.

“Alright you two behave and I will hopefully see you later. If not I will see you at home later Jase. Melissa, enjoy your first day and don’t let the drill sergeant there run you away.”

“You too Matt, thank you. Oh, and for the pay I am receiving, I don’t think he could scare me away.” She realized what she said and her cheeks turned a bright color of red as she turned to Jase. He had one eyebrow cocked at her in challenge. She heard Matthew’s laughter as he made his way to the elevator.

“Yeah I think she is perfect Jase. You have finally met your match I think.” He continued laughing as the doors to the elevator closed around him.

*****

The next few days went by fast. Jase showed her how to navigate the systems and got her set up with all her sign-in IDs and passwords. There was only one of them at the office at a time, so she had to only deal with swooning over one man at a time. She was sitting at the desk when Jase walked out of his office.

“So, what would you like for lunch?”

“Um.. I’m really not that hungry actually.” For one, she had spent the last of her money splurging on food and wouldn’t receive her first check until the next day. Also, she didn’t want to be stuffing her face in front of this hot-ass guy. Uh huh… not happening.

“You have to eat. My treat for congratulating you on a great first week. How about Chinese?”

Her eyes lit up before she could say a thing. It was her favorite and she hadn’t had Chinese take-out in almost a year when one of her roommates had bought it. Coming from nothing, she learned to scrape what she did have to make it by. She knew by his smile that he knew she liked Chinese.

“Chinese it is then.” He picked his phone up and called a number. She faded into the background as he ordered and then hung up. “So what do you think so far? Is this somewhere you can see yourself? Now I know that Matt and I can both be very demanding at times, but you can just tell us to cool it. We are actually pretty laid back.”