To Love and Obey (Boundaries) (6 page)

He gave her a wink and left, leaving her body still shuddering slightly with the aftershocks of her powerful release.

The next hour and a half passed in a daze. Something was niggling at her though and she couldn’t work out what it was. It was as if her subconscious seemed to want to tell her something, but it couldn’t quite reach her conscious mind through the dreamy cloud of euphoria floating in her head. It was only when Adam came out of the boardroom and asked her to bring in the platters of sandwiches, that she realized what she’d forgotten and the bottom dropped out of her stomach as she stared at him in shock.

“The…the food hasn’t arrived yet,” she said, her voice only just audible. Oh, God, why hadn’t she noticed the catering company hadn’t yet delivered the food? She should have checked and chased it up at least an hour ago. She felt her face pale as Adam glared at her in disbelief. “Hang on,” she said, with false confidence, “they’re probably waiting in reception.”

Her fingers trembled as she dialed reception to ask if they’d been delivered and her heart sank further when the indifferent receptionist told her that no one had delivered anything. She put the phone down and looked up at Adam in despair.

His eyes flashed with anger as he realized her mistake, the deep blue turning icy cold and hard. “Sort it,
now
,” he growled, and stormed back into the meeting.

Oh shit, shit, shit, what’s happened?
She was sure she had placed the order on the catering company’s website—she remembered doing it. She grabbed the phone and quickly dialed their number, praying they would apologize and say that they were on their way.

“I’m sorry, Miss Porter, we don’t seem to have received any order from your company.” The girl sounded apologetic and double-checked the system to make sure there hadn’t been a mistake, but she only confirmed that they had definitely not received an order.

Rachel closed her eyes, desperately clutching at straws as she asked, “Is there any way you could…”

“I’m sorry, there’s no way we could arrange anything at this short notice. Sorry.”

Not as sorry as I’m going to be
, Rachel thought, desperately. She quickly logged onto their website and signed in. Tears stung her eyes as she stared at the unconfirmed order on the screen in front of her. She had a vague memory of wanting to check how many vegetarians were attending and had obviously forgotten to go back and confirm the order.

She glanced at the door to Adam’s office and her stomach knotted up into a tight ball of fear. This was a major fuck-up and it was all her fault.

Adam was going to kill her.

Chapter Five

“If Mr Stone asks where I am, tell him I’ve gone to get their lunch,” Rachel called to the bewildered looking receptionist, and rushed out of the rotating doors leading to the street. She ran across the road to the little deli where she usually bought her sandwiches.

“Hello, Rachel,” said the owner, Mario, with a warm smile, “would you like your usual?”

She gasped as she tried to get her words out and had to take a couple of deeps breaths before she could speak. “Actually, Mario, you might just be able to save my life.”

Ten minutes later, Rachel was riding back up to her office in the lift, her arms laden with bags of pre-packaged sandwiches, fruit and silver foil platters. Although pre-packaged for convenience, the sandwiches were always freshly made on the premises every morning and the fillings were always generous and tasty.

She ran into the small kitchen and hurriedly ripped open the packaging then placed the sandwiches on the platters. Mario had given her some lettuce and cherry tomatoes for decoration and lent her a glass bowl for the fruit as there wasn’t enough time to prepare and chop it—it would have to do.

Only twenty minutes after she should have originally brought in their lunch, she knocked briefly on the door to the boardroom and walked confidently in, carrying the platters of sandwiches. “Sorry for the delay,” she said, as if in full control. “The caterers were held up in traffic.”

She glanced over at Adam who shot her an odd look, then hurried out again to make some fresh coffee. It was only after they’d finished their lunch and had resumed the agenda that Rachel finally allowed herself to sit back and take stock of the situation.
Phew, that was close, too close.
Adam had looked really cross. Even though she’d managed to save the day, she knew he wouldn’t let her off lightly.

The door clicked and Rachel looked up to see Joanne Baker coming toward her. “Just nipping to the ladies,” she said, smiling. “Great lunch, by the way, better than usual.”

“Oh, thanks.” Rachel’s face flamed, but she couldn’t bring herself to admit her mistake to Joanne.

“Oh, it looks like things are going to drag on a bit.” Joanne rolled her eyes. “Lord Granville is being particularly pedantic today. Can we have our chat tomorrow instead?”

“Yes, of course,” said Rachel, forcing a bright smile onto her face.
If I haven’t been fired
, she thought, bitterly.

Joanne had been right. The meeting dragged well into the afternoon and, by the time everyone had gone, it was after three o’clock. She wanted to go in and see Adam, to apologize for her mistake and, hopefully, hear him thank her for fixing things.

Before she had a chance though, Adam stormed out of his office. “I’m going out,” he snapped as he passed her desk without looking at her. “I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

“Okay,” she said quietly, feeling her heart sink at his tone.
God, he must be really angry.

“Oh, and can you book me onto the earliest flight to Amsterdam out of Heathrow tomorrow.” His voice was brusque, unforgiving.

“Amsterdam? Er, yes, Sir. When will you be returning?” She’d known he was due to meet with some important clients from Amsterdam soon, but she’d understood it was going to be a video conference from his office. Was he so angry with her that he would rather travel abroad for the day than face her in the office?

“I don’t know,” he snapped. “Leave the return open. See you later.”

He strode away from her desk and stepped into the lift without looking back. As the doors closed, she felt a lump in her throat and quickly picked up the phone to call the company travel agent before she forgot and dug herself deeper into the shit she was already in.

* * * *

Rachel was reeling. After yesterday’s debacle, could things really get any weirder? As Joanne Baker walked away, Rachel could only stare after her in shock, her heart thumping with excitement. Was Joanne serious?

After a restless night dreaming about boardrooms and fucked-up lunches, Rachel had gone into work this morning feeling listless and grumpy. The fact that she wouldn’t see Adam all day was both a relief and a disappointment. Was Adam still pissed off with her? Surely not, but wouldn’t he have called her if everything were okay?

She’d been deep in her thoughts and hadn’t noticed the elegant Finance Director hovering at her desk, until she had spoken. “Rachel?”

She had jumped and immediately slapped her professional, Miss Super Efficient PA face on. “Hi, Joanne,” she’d said, smiling.

“Got time for that chat now?” Without waiting for an answer, Joanne had turned and walked into Adam’s office, sat down on the sofa and waited, expectantly.

Rachel had followed her in, feeling odd for using Adam’s office without him there.
I miss him.
Oh for God’s sake,
she’d scolded herself silently,
he’s only gone for a day. Pull yourself together.

Joanne had then studied her for a moment before she’d spoken. “Has Adam said anything about when the new girl starts? You know, Lucy’s maternity cover?”

New girl? Rachel had been so absorbed in her new job that she kept forgetting it wasn’t permanent. How funny that she’d been so terrified of working for Adam when she’d first found out about her temporary promotion. He was scary, yes, but in a completely different way from anything she could ever have imagined. The truth was, she was enjoying herself now and the sudden reminder that it would all end sometime soon, had brought her back down to earth with a great big bump.

Actually, he was probably still so pissed off with her for screwing up the lunch order yesterday that he would fire her anyway. What would happen if he did fire her, would he still want her as his sub?

“Rachel?” Joanne’s voice had brought her back out of her gloomy thoughts and she’d returned her attention to the lady sitting opposite her.

“Sorry.” She’d smiled, with an outward appearance of calm. “Lucy’s replacement? To be honest, he hasn’t mentioned it. Why?”

Joanne had leaned forwards and lowered her voice, as if drawing her into a conspiracy. “Well, after you looked over those figures for me a couple of weeks ago, I checked your personnel records because I was so impressed with what you did.”

Oh, Rachel had forgotten all about that.

Joanne continued, her voice low. “Those mistakes that you spotted were very complex and had been missed by our accountants. When you picked up on them straight away, I knew you had to have some sort of talent with numbers. I was surprised to see that you didn’t go to university though?”

It was a question, not a statement, and Rachel knew Joanne was waiting for an explanation. “It was a difficult time,” she’d said, quietly, not wanting to go into detail. “My parents both died around the time I was considering what to do and I never got around to doing anything more about it.”

Joanne had looked genuinely sad and her words had sounded sincere when she’d said, “Oh, Rachel, that’s awful, I’m so sorry.”

Rachel had shrugged and looked away to hide the painful memories from her face. “That’s okay, it was a long time ago.”

“Come and work for me,” Joanne had blurted suddenly, her face lighting back up.

“What?” Rachel had gawped at Joanne as if she’d just proposed marriage.

“I need someone like you on my team,” she’d said, not bothering to hide her enthusiasm. “You’ve got a keen eye for detail and are very talented with numbers. You’d make a great accountant.”

“But…” Rachel had started to protest but, actually, she knew Joanne was right so there was no point acting all modest and coy.

“No buts,” said Joanne. Her voice had taken on an edge that showed how determined she was about this, and Rachel was flattered that she was effectively being headhunted by this powerful lady. “We’ll send you to college part-time to get your accounting qualifications and you’ll get all the practical training you need here.”

“Well, I…”

“Good. That’s settled then.”

They had then both stood up and shaken hands, sealing the agreement.

“What about Adam?” He was going to be pretty pissed off when he found out she had been stolen from under his nose. Or maybe he’d be glad? It would save him having to fire her.

Joanne had just smiled, that confident professional smile that said she wasn’t going to let such a minor detail get in her way. “Leave Adam to me,” she’d said. “If we assure him you’ll stay until Lucy’s replacement starts, he can’t really argue, can he?”

And with that, Joanne had walked out, leaving Rachel staring after her in disbelief. Wow, she’d just been offered a new job. The blood buzzed through her veins as excitement replaced her surprise. She’d always wanted to work with numbers, she knew she was good, and the idea of working with something she was good at, gave her such a feeling of confidence that she wanted to jump up and down like an excited child.

What would Adam say? He’d probably be pleased to be rid of her—after all, if he had to go to the extreme of flying off to Amsterdam for the day just to avoid her, then she’d be doing him a favor.

At four o’clock, her phone rang. “Adam Stone’s office, can I help you?” She had settled so comfortably into her role as Adam’s PA that anyone on the other end of the phone would assume she was his long-standing assistant.

“Hi.” Adam’s voice sounded strained, distant.

“Hi,” she answered, suddenly not sure what to say to him. “How’s the trip?” Duh, couldn’t she have thought of something a little more original to say?

“Okay. Is everything all right at the office? Any messages?” He still sounded distant.

Her heart sank at the cool, impersonal tone of his voice.

She ran through a couple of things with him, relayed a few messages and assured him that everything was fine.
Oh, and I’ve been offered another job, so fuck you,
she thought silently.

Once business had been dealt with, he ended the call with a brisk, “See you tomorrow.”

She put the receiver down and stared at it for a few minutes. God, he was still angry with her.

Suddenly, a flash of anger tore through her and she threw her pen down onto the desk. “Fuck you, Adam Stone,” she hissed aloud.

Okay, she’d screwed up the lunch order, but her quick thinking had saved the day and no one had been any the wiser. Except for him. Surely he should be commending her for acting so calmly and quickly? The more she thought about it, the more it didn’t make sense. Her small mistake didn’t justify his aloof and angry manner, so there had to be more to it and there was only one other reason for it that she could think of. He was getting tired of her. Maybe he realized she didn’t want a TPE relationship and didn’t feel she was worth bothering with. He probably thought her mistake yesterday would be a good excuse to distance himself from her.

But, on the other hand, he had seemed so happy when she’d called him Master, and yesterday, when he’d rewarded her in the kitchen, he had been anything but distant. It didn’t make sense. What was going on?

She continued to torment herself until it was time to go home, by which time she had convinced herself that Adam was definitely going to dump her as soon as he got back from his trip, and find himself a nice, willing slave to serve him.

The following morning, she fidgeted nervously with his coffee as she steeled herself to go into his office. The door was open, but he didn’t call out to her as he usually did.
Uh-oh, not a good sign.

She popped her head round the door and stuck a smile on her face. “Good morning,” she said, briskly, and walked toward his desk.