The Scandalous Billionaires Collection (32 page)

"We're here ma'am." The driver said. Suzy was
way too tense to answer; her throat too dry, her palms too moist.
She nodded instead, just barely.

"Go in through the front entrance ma'am, and
reception will take care of everything for you."

She nodded again, words lying dead in her
throat.

"Good luck." He said as she walked away. He
was a young man, good looking, tall, confident, probably not much
older than herself, but he looked so at ease, so mature. She felt
like asking him what the secret was but that would be dumb,
wouldn't it? She had never felt so unsure of herself in her life
and today of all days was when she needed her self-confidence the
most.

She inhaled deeply to steady herself and then
walked through the tall glass doors into the building.

She gulped again.

The lobby was huge and intimidating and she
stopped there to look up at the Cathedralesque ceiling. Everything
was marble, ornate, tasteful and ridiculously expensive.

A heaviness came into the pit of her stomach
as though she had swallowed a stone. How could Zach let this
charade happen after what had taken place between them last night?
That was the part she really couldn't understand.

"Susan Price?" A woman's voice called her.
She looked around and saw a slim, attractive, blonde woman in her
fifties.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, I've
heard so much about you."

Suzy nodded her head but remained mute. The
woman was quite beautiful.

Typical.
She thought.
I bet he only
hires the good looking ones. No wonder he didn't want to hire silly
little Suzy Price.

"My name is Catherine," the woman said,
"Catherine Walton. I'm head of human resources. Come on, I'll take
you to Zach's office."

Suzy nodded; the knot in her throat
threatened to make her unload her breakfast if she even thought
about speaking.

"Do you need anything to drink?" Catherine
asked her. Suzy shook her head mutely.

"Are you okay Susan? You look a little
pale."

"I'm fine." She finally blurted out and then
gulped in some air, thankful that she at least hadn't thrown up all
over her human resources liaison.

"Okay then, so just come this way
please."

She followed the slender and elegant looking
woman to the elevators. Catherine pressed the button and they
waited. Catherine tried to make small talk but it was no use, Suzy
either didn't hear or couldn’t respond. Eventually Catherine put
her hand softly to Suzy's arm.

"Suzy." She said, looking her directly in the
eye. "Suzy, listen to me." She said more forcefully.

"Uh huh, yeah, Catherine what is it?"

"You've got to relax honey."

"I am relaxed."

"Sure, like a deer in headlights is relaxed."
She held Suzy's eyes for a moment more until the terrified young
woman began to smile, then giggle and then finally laugh and guffaw
uncontrollably. They were around a corner from the main lobby and
out of sight. Catherine gave a quick double check to make sure they
were alone and then pulled Suzy in towards her. She took the
hysterical girl's head into her hands and locked her gaze with her
won.

Suzy was shocked but Catherine's touch felt
so benign that she didn't try to pull away.

"Suzy, look, I know you're shaking inside
right now but you have to be strong. If he sees you like this he'll
walk all over you and you'll be gone out of here before the end of
the day. Trust me, you wouldn’t be the first one not to make it to
lunch time, hell some of them don't make it through the meet and
greet. Now listen to me. Are you listening to me?"

Suzy nodded her head.

"Okay. I've got just one question for you; do
you want this job or don't you? Because if you aren’t one hundred
percent sure then just walk out that door right now and save us all
a wasted morning. You won't regret it. This is one of the toughest
gigs around which is why we're willing to pay fifty thousand
dollars
starting
salary to someone who knows nothing about
being a PA."

"Who's that?"

"That's you honey. Now tell me straight up
and totally honest, do you want this job or don't you?"

Are you kidding me?
She thought.
I'm ready to run the hell out of here.
She made ready to
shake her head and run for the hills but she could hear Melissa's
voice in her ear, pleading with her to take the job.

She couldn't let her down.

"Suzy. Answer me."

She looked into the woman's eyes.

It's just a job.
She thought.
With
an overgrown jock who thinks he's God's gift to women. I've been
through a whole lot tougher than this before.

She felt her steel and determination
returning. How could she have been so silly?

"What are we waiting for?" She said
defiantly. "Let's get in there."

"That's the spirit Suzy," Catherine released
Suzy's head from her hands, smiled and winked, "You know what? I
think I have a good feeling about you. You might just turn out to
be 'the one'."

'The one'.
Suzy froze.
What the
hell does that mean?

"I'm not interested in dating him." She
blurted as Catherine led her into the elevator.

"Excuse me?" Catherine turned to her.

"What makes you think I'm going to his 'one
and only'? This is just a job, right?"

"You'll have to excuse me honey, but I really
have no idea what you're talking about."

Realization dawned on her.

Of course Suzy, well done. Give yourself a
pat on the back for yet another ridiculous social blunder. She
doesn't mean 'the one for him', you idiot.

"Forget about it." She said. "Hit the button.
Let's do this." Catherine gave her another wink and then hit the
top floor button.

"Today's going to be a good day." she said
comfortingly.

Suzy's stomach churned.

They rode the rest of the way up in silence
and then Catherine led her through the spectacular top floor office
space to Zach's office. Suzy was beginning to feel stronger but
still her heart was racing. If the celebrity heartthrob had been a
handful in her own apartment where she was boss, what was it going
to be like here right at the center of
his
world?

And what if he came onto her again? What
would she do this time?

"You can take a seat right there." Catherine
indicated a plush, cream colored giant marshmallow style seat in
the middle of the room. The office décor was all glass, modern,
quirky; software giant style.

She sat down on the marshmallow which turned
out to be extremely comfortable, unlike the experience of waiting
in the beast's lair. A few minutes and her nerves were turning to
mild indignation. He had stipulated that she should be ready at 8am
but obviously he could arrive whenever he wanted. Just because he
was rich didn't mean he needed to be rude and disrespectful of
other people's time.

She stood up and began walking around. His
desk was huge and completely empty. There were no pictures of
people or of family--not even a pet--just framed awards of
excellence and boring abstract art she could make neither head nor
tale of. Her neat business suit was beginning to bother her. She
had never really worn it before other than to try it on at the
store and now the fabric of the skirt was beginning to itch on her
waist. She looked around before pulling her shirt out of her skirt
and scratching her abdomen to immense relief.

"Oh God that's good." She moaned.

"Certainly sounds good?" The baritone voice
made her jump and turn around, her shirt still sticking out over
her skirt.

"What are you doing here?" She blurted,
hastily tucking her shirt back in.

It was Zachary of course, looking as
corporate as a tall building and as strikingly sexy as an
aftershave commercial.

"I own the building." He said. "The real
question is what exactly were
you
doing here before I came
in?"

"I, uh…"
God damn it.
"I was
scratching my belly." She said. It sounded every bit as bad out
loud as it had in her head.

Shit.

"Is this a joke kidney girl? I thought we had
come to a mutual understanding last night that we should stay away
from each other."

"And I thought we had a mutual understanding
not to refer to me as kidney girl, or did that escape your memory
while you slept last night in Demovic Towers."

The words had flown out before she could
master herself. This wasn't her living room and he wasn't
babysitting her anymore--he was her boss now.

"I mean, I'm sorry Mr. Demovic, but I was
waiting here a long time for you and I just, didn't see you coming
in is all. I'm sorry." The words were sticking in her throat like
chunks of the Moo Shoo pork she had nearly choked on last
night.

Just before you pressed your rock hard body
against my ass.

She shook the thought out of her head and
stared up at him. He was even more awesomely good looking in his
full corporate attire than he had been in his suit the night
before.

"Mr. Demovic?" He repeated. "Isn't that a bit
over formal, even for a kid from the 1950s like you?"

"I'm sorry, I'll call you whatever you want
me to you." She said.

"How about 'baboon' or 'galoot'? They seemed
pretty good to you last night."

"Okay, then how about you tell me I have a
cute little tush again, because
that
seemed pretty good to
you
last night." She couldn't hold herself back, it wasn't
in her nature to back down from a fight and she had never really
had a boss so she wasn't used to biting her tongue and sucking it
up like the rest of corporate America.

Zachary looked at her, his dark eyes
smoldering. Suzy couldn't read him at all but she sure as hell knew
how hot that look was making her. His lips on her lips again… would
that ever happen.

She put her hand to her collar and opened it
a little.

"Is that for me?" He said without a glimmer
of a smile. Her eyes darted to her hand and then she hurriedly put
it behind her again.

"I'm sorry Mr. Demovic, no of course not, I
would never… uh…"

"Never what exactly?" His dark eyes surveyed
her autocratically and she felt herself examined, exposed, denuded
before him. "And what's with the getup?" He continued. "Are you
going to a costume party where you have to dress up as a working
person?"

You bastard.
She thought as she felt
burning crimson rise to her face again.

"Why are you being so mean to me?" She said.
"If you didn't want me to work for you then why did you bring me
all the way in here? Just to get you cheap kicks humiliating
me?"

"
You
? Work for me? For
me
?" His
face contorted in confusion and surprise, but he was still
gorgeous. "What in the hell are you talking about kid--, I mean
Suzy? I'm expecting a new PA today, not…" The dots began to join up
in his head. "Oh hell no. No way. No way. You are not wanted
here."

Suzy felt her lip begin to tremble.

"And you are not allowed to cry in my office.
That is not allowed, anyone who works here knows that."

"Then why did you tell Melissa you wanted me
as your next PA you, you…" she searched for the right word.

"I didn't. I never did. Jason called me and
said he wanted me to do him a favor."

"A favor?"

"That's right, the guy begged me to take on
some girl he said needed a chance to make a new start. I told him
to go to hell, that this job is way more important than helping out
some ex-girlfriend. I need a way above average, highly capable
person who can hit the ground running not some lame duck."

"Lame duck?"

"That's right. Well if your sister's
boyfriend thought he would appeal to my better nature by giving me
yet another human project to work on, he can forget about it. The
one damn time in my life I don't background check the hell out of a
potential employee and this happens."

"Lame duck?" Suzy's lip was still trembling
and she was still flushed but the undercurrent of indignation and
rage was rising.

"Well from what I hear,
you're
the
only lame duck around here."

"Me? A lame duck? Now that's a laugh. The
entire building you're standing in belongs to me, and everyone in
it depends on me for their livelihood. Is that what you call a lame
duck?"

"You may own a building, but it seems you
can't figure out how to keep a woman in your life for more than
three weeks at a time."

The pair faced each other in mute rage. Three
weeks was actually a generous estimate--three hours would have been
more accurate.

Anyone who spoke to him like that in his
office or anywhere else in this building would have been escorted
to the exit by security, but he didn't move a muscle. Seeing the
pretty little thing who had turned him on like a Christmas Tree
last night had been a welcome if kind of bizarre surprise. He was
furious with Jason for screwing him over like this but at the same
time… there was something about her that made him hold back. This
silly little girl somehow had the ability to wound him with
pinpoint accuracy even though he hardly knew her and every time she
did he felt his trousers begin to bulge with excitement.

He looked at her now filled with anger,
hostility and a longing to teach her a good lesson in the sack hat
she would never forget; just like all the others.

If he could get her under him for one night
then she would know all about lame duck. She'd be screaming for the
lame duck to spend one more night with her while he called security
in his penthouse to have her removed. A restraining order would be
needed to keep her away from him and then no matter how hard she
cried or how hard she begged he wouldn't let her near him.