S&M III, Vol. II (38 page)

“I should be heading home,” Mariana stood up, “it’s getting late.”

“You know you’re more than welcome to stay the night if you would like.” Scott suggested. He was craving her again.

“Boss, thanks for the offer –”

“Scott,” he once again corrected.

“Scott,” Mariana took heed, “thanks for the offer, but I already overstayed my welcome, so I need to get home.”

Scott didn’t want her to go, but he wasn’t about to make Mariana stay. “Are you sure?”

“Ye…yes.” Mariana hesitated.

“That doesn’t sound like a sure answer,” Scott wondered.

“I’m sure,” Mariana grinned. Scott was absolutely right, but there was no way he could know that. She wasn’t sure if she was able to handle him again. “I have class in the morning and I need to get home.”

“Okay, no pressure,” Scott reluctantly agreed, “I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“I just cleaned your house, Boss,” Mariana quickly caught herself, “Scott.”

“The bedroom is messed up.” Scott smiled.

Mariana could’ve sworn she saw a sparkle in Scott’s eyes. “I wonder how that happened?”

Scott walked Mariana to the front door. “Sweet dreams, Mariana,” he leaned down and slowly kissed her.

Mariana felt her body was on fire again. If her mind wanted to go, the warmth between her legs wanted her to stay. “Maybe I’ll stay for a cup of tea.”

“Is that what the kids are calling it nowadays?”

Scott closed his eyes at the memory. He missed his ex terribly and his heart ached with each moment she was gone. He had to get her back. It was just a matter of whether Mariana would still want him when the time was right—and safe—for them both.

“No, I’m fine, Elissa. Thank you.”

****

Dear Mr. Reed,

I am officially announcing my resignation from McCormick and Sheppard, effective immediately. While I have enjoyed interning here and participating in great campaigns, it has occurred to me that I need to move on from a professional standpoint. Due to the personal and complicated nature of our relationship, I will not request a letter of recommendation from you nor do I expect one.

Thank you for giving me a wonderful opportunity. I’m sure your next
su
intern will be honored to work with you.

Sincerely,

Mariana Harlow

Scott re-read Mariana’s handwritten letter no fewer than a dozen times. She was professional, courteous, and respectful, as he knew she always was. While the majority of the contents didn’t bother him, Scott found the last line of her letter particularly disturbing.

I’m sure your next
su
intern will be honored to work with you.

She’d begun to write
submissive
and changed her mind at the last moment. He didn’t think she would still want to submit to him, and he wouldn’t dare to ask her. He found their D/s relationship to be moot point if they were no longer involved.

What really happened with the spreadsheet Mariana had been working on? She had always been so careful and methodical with the figures, going over them several times to make sure they were exactly right.

Still, the biggest account she had worked on, she severely messed up. Worse yet, it made Scott look really bad. He could already hear the whispers.
Did you hear Ice’s girlfriend messed up on that account? You know the only reason why Mari got that account was because of Ice, right? I wonder if he’s going to fire his girlfriend? That would be cold!

It was going to take a lot of PR to clean up that mess. Scott had to get to the bottom of Mariana’s mistake before he made any decisions regarding her future, their future. Scott knew the problem wasn’t her mistake. The problem was
him.

He didn’t trust her as his employee. He didn’t trust her as his girlfriend, and Paul was right—Scott didn’t trust Mariana as his potential
wife.
He never told Mariana how much money he was worth for fear she would be more interested in his bank account than in him, despite all signs pointing otherwise.

He only trusted her as His submissive, and even then, He still kept tabs on her.

“What’s going on with the Guess campaign?” Michael asked.

“Everything is fine,” Scott kept his answers short and sweet. He didn’t want to allude to any problems between him and Mariana. “Everything’s fine.”

“You repeated it, Ice,” Rich pointed out. “You sure?”

Scott let out an exasperated sigh. “I took Ms. Harlow off the Guess campaign. I’ll be directly overseeing it with Chris and his team.”

“I heard about the mistake,” Michael chimed in. “What do you think happened?”

Scott knew what happened. Caprina was involved somehow and he just needed to prove it. Accusing her at the moment would be ridiculous and detrimental to his career.
Maybe that was what she wanted all along.
“I’m doing an investigation now, and I’m handling it.”

“And what about Mariana? Where is she?” Rich asked.

“She’s no longer with McCormick and Sheppard,” Scott admitted. The words stung as he said them. She wasn’t just gone from the company; she was also out of his life.

“Do you plan on getting her back?”

Scott knew Michael meant professionally, but he took the question as if it was personal. “Yes.”

“Very well, then,” Rich nodded, “I just want to be sure everything is okay between you two. I know things can get complicated when your mix personal and business…”

“Rich, I’m handling it,” Scott was abrupt. “Please stop with the Dr. Phil shit.”

****

Caprina strolled into McCormick and Sheppard’s office with a bounce in her step. The years of planning and manipulating were finally about to pay off. Scott was going to be hers again, and she couldn’t wait. What happened in Las Vegas was just a taste of things to come. She was going to fuck his dick so raw, it was going to turn red.

She smiled and waved to the employees as she strolled past their desks. When she caught a glimpse of Robert, Nate, and Alex, she shot them all a dirty look and continued on to Scott’s office. They had ruined her chances the last few times; they were not going to be successful this time.

“Good morning, Elissa!” Caprina shuffled in her steps. “Is Scott available?”

“He’s in a meeting now,” Elissa replied. “He’ll be out shortly before he goes to lunch.”

“Fantastic!” Caprina smiled. “Do you mind if I wait for him in his office? Okay, thank you.” Caprina let herself inside Scott’s office and closed the door behind her.

Elissa let out a frustrated sigh. She had to deal with Caprina Waters again, albeit temporarily; she had determined her day job wasn’t paying her enough.

Thank God for those IT classes she took a while back.

She had known Owen was screwing Scott over; the whole office did. But the moment that sealed Owen’s fate was a backhanded comment he made to Elissa regarding her appearance.
“You would be so much prettier if you weren’t so chubby.”

Elissa had hired a security guy…what was that guy’s name…ah yes, his name was Jay. He helped set up cameras in Rich’s office, and she recorded every day until something good happened. It was a matter time before Owen made his move, and when he did, Elissa couldn’t have been happier.

She had recorded everything on a jump drive, and waited for Scott to view it. She knew what was going to happen the moment Scott saw the footage and arranged for security to escort Owen out of the building. When Elissa arrived home from work that day, she saw she had an envelope with her name on it. She opened it and was shocked to see several crisp hundred dollar bills before her. She went inside and counted the money: it was a total of five thousand dollars. Attached was a note:

Thank you for your continued silence on the matter.

Elissa didn’t know who the mysterious person was, but she was happy. She went out and purchased her very own Louis Vuitton bag and saved the rest. She felt as fancy as those Hollywood darlings she saw walking down the street.

A few days ago, she received the same envelope in her mailbox with more money and another note:
Something big is about to happen. Your silence is once again greatly appreciated.
Attached to the money was a sum of ten thousand dollars.

Elissa surely hoped whatever the big event was, it was going to be Caprina’s downfall. She couldn’t stand that hussy.

****

“She’s here, Boss,” Alex spoke into the phone.

“Very well,” Sanora replied. “She won’t be there very long.”

“Anything you want us to do?”

“Did you get in touch with IT?”

Alex glanced over to Elissa, who smiled. “Sure did.”

“Did you get a backup of the files?”

“Sure did.”

“You will present those files in approximately six weeks at the presentation meeting. She will be there as well as other noteworthy people.”

“You got it, Boss. Anything else you would like us to do?”

“What about the cameras outside? Are they gone?”

“Sure are,” Alex handed various envelopes to the paparazzi shortly after Caprina arrived. He watched and waited for the men to open the envelopes and read the contents inside:

Whatever she paid you, I’m doubling it.—Dakis.

The men disappeared shortly afterward. “Is there anything else you want us to do, Boss?” Alex asked.

“No, you’ve been great. You’ll be rewarded soon. We’ll be in touch.” Sanora hung up. She turned to her guest before her. “Six weeks is when everything will go down.”

The figure took a plume of his cigar and blew it out in the crisp April air. “Are you sure this will happen the way you think it will?”

“Oh yes,” Sanora smiled, “starting today is when he’ll discover what I’ve been doing.”

The man before her nodded. “Do you think he’ll approve?”

Sanora thought about the coming events ahead. “I say he will.”

****

Scott left Rich’s office and headed back to his. He still couldn’t wrap his head around what happened in his life. How did he go from being on the verge of proposing, trying to schedule a time to get married and have a nice honeymoon, to being alone and miserable all within a matter of days?

Elissa stopped him on the way. “She’s in there,” she warned.

She. Caprina. Scott hoped it was Mariana, but she would probably be too scared to show her face around there again.  But Caprina? She would come in like nothing ever happened.

Scott entered his office and he saw Caprina was already sitting on his desk. “Yes, Ms. Waters?”

“Scotty!” She hopped off and rushed over to him. She gave him a warm embrace. He didn’t hug back. “I just wanted to see how you were doing!”

“I’m doing fine, Ms. Waters. What can I help you with?”

“I wanted to see if you were free for lunch today? My treat!” Caprina smiled.

“Actually, I have to meet with another client, and I’m already running late.”

“Oh, can’t you cancel? Just this once?” Caprina gave a pouty frown.

“No,” Scott stated. He walked over to his desk and grabbed his keys. “Now, if you excuse me, Ms. Waters, I have to run.”

“Are you still coming to my photo shoot in a few weeks?” she asked.

Scott dreaded going to yet another photo shoot starring his ex. “Yes, I’ll be there.”

“Great!” Caprina gave Scott a kiss on his cheek. The shoot originally had Caprina modeling the Guess jeans and heels. She had convinced Guess to make it a lingerie shoot, and she would model their line of accessories. She was going to be half-naked the entire time. “I can’t wait to see you!”

“Mmm hmm.” Scott had no desire to visit Caprina on set but he had no choice. He had to make sure the campaign was running smoothly after what happened with Mariana.

Caprina interlocked arms with Scott and escorted him out of the building. She looked around for the paparazzi shehad paid in advance, but they were nowhere to be found. She wondered what happened to them.

T
EN

Eric was calm and collected, though his insides told a different story. He had butterflies in his stomach, and he had barely slept the night before. Luckily for him, Sarah kept getting up and using the bathroom every hour so they didn’t distract each other.

After UCLA won the NCAA championship, he received a flurry of offers from prospective agents, eventually signing with one. He was going to graduate in a couple of months and hopefully he’d be selected by a good team in the draft that summer. But in case things didn’t work out, he needed his Plan B to work. It was his life’s calling.

When Eric was younger, his grandmother always took him out once a month to the opera or a play. He would get dressed in a fancy suit, and they would eat somewhere equally fancy before heading to the theatre. He became a fan of
Les Miserables
and
Phantom of the Opera
. He often listened to The Three Tenors and even the Three Mo’ Tenors before games to relax.

He wanted to give back to the community by doing the same for underprivileged kids who wouldn’t know what the opera was or never had the opportunity to get dressed up and go somewhere and feel important. He wanted to take children and teenagers to a game, a play, or something high society once a month so they could get away from their situation for a short while. He wanted to give them the same hope and encouragement his grandmother gave to him.

He just hoped his potential investors would agree.

“Are you nervous?” Sarah finally asked.

“A little,” Eric sipped his lemon water, “just anxious. I hope they say yes.”

“How can they say no?” Sarah smiled. “You have the perfect business plan! They would be foolish to turn you down!”

“Let’s just hope they have the same vote of confidence you do, babe.”

“Hey,” Sarah turned Eric’s face towards her. “They will.” She kissed him.

“Awe, look at this. Young, Black love,” Jeff approached them. “I love it already.”

“Nice to meet you, sir,” Eric stood up and shook hands with Jeff. “Jeff, this is my fiancée, Sarah Roberts.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Sarah.” Jeff shook her hand. “Please, have a seat.”