The Inheritance (Forever Bound #1) (15 page)

Charity: My juices gush into your mouth and my stomach clenches. Your sucking hard and I groan

with heated desire. Damian…Damian…I cry. Fuck yes! My body seizes against you and your tongue

frantically thrashes against the walls of my pussy.

Breathlessly she panted, waiting for his next move. “Oh God…” she groaned, falling back against her pillow and aching for him to really be there.

Damian: Holy Fuck!! Something to tide us over I see.

Charity laughed, nodding and sighing as she could barely move to type in another message. She slowly started her response.

Charity: Not as good as the real thing, but we’ll get there. ;)

She dropped the phone and didn’t bother to move it when it landed on her stomach. She was too tired to get undressed for bed. She was even more focused on getting that rest because Damian tired her out and the morning would be there before she knew it.

Her eyes opened as she was awakened from her dream. Beads of sweat drenched her as she shot her eyes toward her alarm clock. “Shit!” she screamed, jumping out of bed. Her phone fell to the floor, as it was resting on her stomach and she started stripping herself as she ran to the bathroom to get in the shower. She’d fallen asleep, succumbing to her tiredness. She didn’t bother setting her alarm, because she was so caught up in sexting Damian, that everything else paled in comparison.

She took the quickest shower she could and got out and raced to get dressed for work. She was going to be late. There was no use thinking otherwise. She couldn’t get across town in less than fifteen minutes, and as she got in her car, she only had five minutes to spare. She rehearsed what she was going to say to him. It was a horrible impression to be late on the first day of a new job, and she could only take her punishment with ease.

She parked in the attached parking garage and got out of her car, just as she shut it off. “I’m sorry Mayor Worthington for being late. My apologies as I’m usually a very punctual person. It will never happen again, and I promise you that you can count on me.” She almost ran into the courthouse, and as she waited for the elevator, she contemplated of taking the steps. She was sure she could make up her time, but she waited and waited and finally she did get the elevator to open. She punched in his floor number and took the slow journey up. “Please forgive me for my tardiness. There was an accident…horrible pile up.” She paused. “You can’t start off a job by lying, now can you?” The door dinged and opened up to reveal his office.

Lily wasn’t at her desk, so Charity glanced around to see if she could find her. It was Derek that first appeared, though, and she was left to ramble on. Except, he was the one to initiate the conversation. He hurried out of his office and nearly bumped into her, obviously on a mission. He looked up, and darkness filled his face. “You’re late! I don’t tolerate tardiness, Ms. Parker.”
Ms. Parker?
His voice turned so formal. She desperately searched for something to say, but her mind was complete mush. “Don’t you have anything to say?” he asked. His eyes bore holes into her soul.

“I…I’m sorry, Mayor Worthington. I…I…I overslept.”

He looked away from her, as Lily approached the two of them. “Derek?” Lily asked.

Derek turned back to Charity. “Don’t let it happen again!” He pushed past them and went to the elevator, leaving Charity frozen in place.
He hates me! I’m going to lose this job before it barely even starts.
She looked over at Lily and Lily gave her a genuine smile.

“I truly apologize for being late.”

Lily shrugged. “It happens. His bark is far worse than his bite. He’ll forget about it by noon. Trust me!” She patted Charity’s arm and continued to give her an encouraging smile. Charity hoped she was right. “Come on! I’ll give you the tour.”

Charity followed her around the office, where Lily showed her everything from important files to where to go for Derek’s coffee. She explained how Derek took his coffee, and Charity fought the urge to explain she already knew. They wrapped their way around the office and back to her desk. “Where should I put my purse?” she asked. She noted how her voice was a little shaky as she was still settling down from the way Derek seemed so upset with her.

“You can put it in this bottom drawer.” Lily opened up the bottom drawer of the desk and showed her how she could lock it. “You don’t usually have to worry about anyone else being in the office, as usually the only traffic is if Derek has a meeting in the conference room, or someone’s coming up to go to lunch with him. For the most part, it will be just the two of you.”

Great! Just me and the man who hates me. Lovely.
Charity smiled. “Sounds good. I do have a question.”

“Sure. What is it?”

“Um…do you call him, Derek? Or, should I resort to calling him Mayor Worthington at all times. I mean, I don’t want to be disrespectful or anything.”

Lily laughed. “I completely understand. It’s true that I’ve worked with Derek for a while now, but it’s pretty common that everyone just calls him Derek. Now, I suppose if you were some stranger on the street, then you should stick to Mayor Worthington, but Derek usually doesn’t like titles, so I believe he’d agree with me.”

Charity nodded. “Okay, then Derek it is.”

Lily smiled. “Good. Now, you want to take a walk around the building, and I’ll show you everyone else that works here?”

“I would like that!”

Charity and Lily got on the elevator and stopped on each floor, where Charity was introduced to many councilmen, police officers, lawyers, and other city clerks that help run the town. Charity was left feeling overwhelmed and unsure whether she would remember who was who. When they rounded a corner, and she saw Jesse walking their direction, she considered making a dash get away from him.

However, he smiled, and it was too late for that. “Hey, Charity.”

Lily looked at Charity and then turned to Jesse. “You two know each other?” she asked.

Charity wanted to crawl in a hole, but Jesse nodded and seemed eager to confess everything. “Yes, we met the other day. My girlfriend is Charity’s best friend.” He smiled, looking at Charity but directing the conversation to Lily.

“Wow…small world!” Lily responded.

“Hey, Jesse,” Charity quietly said.

“I won’t keep you,” he stated. “See you around!” He continued past them, and Charity smiled awkwardly at her trainer.

“That wasn’t awkward at all,” Charity replied softly.

Lily laughed. “We live in a small town, where pretty much everyone knows one another. It’s bound to happen. Follow me! We have one more stop.”

Charity was happy that Lily took it the way she did because the last thing she needed was someone saying that she got the job because of Jesse or Ana or anything else for the matter. She wanted to get the job because she was the best qualified candidate. They took the elevator to the basement and when they got off, Charity saw boxes and boxes of papers lying around on shelves and on the floor. “This is the records department or at least the archived records.” She led the way around the basement until they got to a room in the back. She knocked on the door, and an elderly woman looked up.

“Hey, Hazel. This is Charity Parker. She’ll be replacing me once her training is up.”

“Hello, dear.” Hazel stood up from her desk and shook Charity’s hand. She then looked at Lily. “I just heard you were leaving us. Going to bigger and better waters, I assume.”

Lily smiled. “I hope so. My boyfriend is transferring and I’ll be moving with him to Idaho. It will be a different experience, but something I’m looking forward to.”

“We’ll miss you,” Hazel responded.

“Thanks, Hazel!” Lily replied with a smile. Lily then turned her attention to Charity. “Hazel is the supervisor of medical records. If she can’t find it in her handy dandy computer system, then she can hunt through boxes.”

“Everything’s alphabetical, and I have yet to misplace anything.”

“Impressive,” Charity replied with a slight chuckle.

“If you need anything, just give me a call,” Hazel replied with a smile.

“Thank you, Hazel.” Charity said, then she followed Lily back through the records and to the elevator. “I would think it would be kinda boring down here alone.”

Lily nodded. “You would think so, but Hazel always has a smile on her face, and like she says…she’s never lost anything.” They took the elevator back up to their office, and Lily continued. “I’ll show you the online calendar and online Rolodex next.” They got off the elevator, and Charity had to quicken her steps to keep up with her. “You’ll find that many things have been put on the computer, so we can try to keep things paperless. Yet, we haven’t completely hit the mark, but it’s a start. Wait right here!”

Charity stood at the desk, then Lily came back a short minute later and had another chair in tow. “Thank you!” Charity said as she started to sit down in the new chair.

“Actually, you sit in the other chair. I’ll direct you where to go.” She smiled as Charity obliged. Charity sat at the computer and typed in each thing that Lily told her to do. When they got to the calendar, she was directed to enter a passcode. Charity stopped, and Lily slid a paper in front of her. “I got you set up this morning. Charity typed in the information and found the calendar opened with ease. Lily showed her where to go to get information on what was going on in Derek’s schedule and how to add events that were important. Charity jotted down the notes, as she was sure she’d forget something. They then went into the Rolodex, where again she had to put in a passcode that Lily already had for her. She didn’t know how she’d remember all the login information. Lily must’ve read her mind because she was quickly assuring her. “You can keep all the login information in the directory right there.

She pointed to an icon and Charity pulled it up. There she was asked to set up another ID and password. Charity laughed. “I doubt I’ll ever remember all these passwords.”

Lily laughed. “It’s overwhelming at first, but if you put it all in there, then you only have to remember one login and password and eventually it will all come to you.”

“I suppose you’re right.” Charity made up the login information and then quickly added the two sets she already had.

“At least you seem comfortable with computers,” Lily added.

“I took an Advanced Computer class in my first year of college,” Charity replied.

“Then this should all come rather easy to you,” Lily commented. They went back to the Rolodex and Lily showed her where all the contact information for anyone that she would ever need to contact was located. She then directed Charity to the email, where again login information was obtained. Before she forgot the steps, she went back to the icon and entered the login information for the email. “You will discover that, at times, you could receive twenty to thirty emails. Don’t be alarmed, as a good portion of them will just be general things discussing IT issues or things happening around the city. Most people if they have anything important will mark it as such, and you will get it at the top of your email, and those will be what you focus your attention on.”

Lily guided Charity through the rest of the computer, showing her things that were necessary folders and ones that she probably would never use. As they were finishing the tutorial of the computer, the elevator door opened, and Derek walked back into the office. He glanced toward the desk but didn’t even stop as he advised Lily they needed to get ready for the meeting, then disappeared in his office.

“Meeting?” Charity asked.

“Nothing major. Every Monday morning we have a meeting to go over anything that anyone wants to talk about. It contains a few councilmen, city clerks, Derek, myself, and maybe a smattering of people that work in the offices below.” She glanced at her watch. “It starts at 9:30 sharp every Monday morning.” She smiled. “Trust me…nothing to get worked up over, but let’s go.”

Charity grabbed a notebook, just like Lily had, and they headed to the conference room. She wasn’t worked up over it, but she was already drained and hoped this would prove to be less taxing and give her time to gain her thoughts.

***

Derek attempted not to look toward Charity as he ran his meeting, but today it seemed exceptionally hard. Only five people, besides Derek, Lily, and Charity made an effort to show up, and he didn’t really have much business to go over. In fact, he had no intention of mentioning the development project, but because he didn’t want a meeting to last only five minutes and everyone complain that they wasted their time coming, he chose to bring it up.

“So, I wanted to let you know that we have hit a snag with the development project.”

There was a moment of silence, then a few people shuffling in their seats, before Simon, the County Commissioner spoke up. “Snag? What kind of snag?”

“Well, apparently there’s a building located on the lot that has been overlooked in the past. So, we weren’t able to get the building purchased so we could demolish it. A few people chatted away with others, while Derek just watched on. He spotted Charity taking notes, and he was impressed she was taking notice.

“Does that mean the project won’t break ground in two months, as previously planned?” Jared, a council member, asked.

It was a question, Derek anticipated answering, but he didn’t really want to focus negativity on the situation. “Honestly, we can’t be sure what the timeframe will be. I have a man working on locating the party associated with the building, but currently, we’ve only hit dead ends. I don’t want to worry about it too much. Anything can happen, and I am hopeful that this won’t delay the project.” The room went quiet, with everyone casually giving knowing looks to one another, but no one else voicing their concern. “Are there any more questions about anything we’ve discussed, or does anyone have new information?” No one seemed eager to voice a question, so he continued. “Before we dismiss, I did want to introduce my new assistant to everyone.” He pointed to Charity, who seemed alarmed by his announcement. “This is Charity Parker. She started just today, and I expect everyone will be genuinely nice to her.” He smiled at Charity, and her face was tinged with a hint of red. “Charity this...” He pointed to each one, calling out their names as if it was a roll call.