Worthy of Redemption (7 page)

~Kyle~

I almost instantly regretted forcing Lily to begin her position without the orientation Mayson fought me so hard about. She asked question after question, often interrupting me while I was speaking or bursting into my office while I was working, or phoning me after I told her to stay out of my office. When she wasn’t asking me questions, she was asking the staff, which kept them from getting their work done.

I started to tell her this was why she wasn’t right for the job, that maybe she should reco
nsider taking the file clerk job or perhaps working in the café around the corner, but she halted me mid-word by putting up her hand and pointing at me.

“Don’t you
dare
say it,” she hissed. “Don’t even consider it. This is your own doing. It was your decision to throw me into this position head first without any training. You can’t deny me the opportunity to ask someone else questions and then get mad when you have to answer them yourself.”

There was nothing for me to say. She was correct. I left her in her office and went back to my own. I sat in my chair, staring out at the busy city as the day winded down and the fall sky grew dim, signaling the darker winter days ahead.

Admittedly, Lily did ask good questions. She asked very specific questions regarding the operation of our department and our clientele and I never had to repeat myself. She asked about my routines, how they could improve and what I needed from her. The following morning she beat me to work as Emmy used to do, except along with my morning coffee she also brought me a muffin and a banana, because “breakfast is the most important meal of the day and you’ll find yourself more focused when you’re not hungry.”

She asked the staff about their needs and concerns and took care of some of it immediately. Within days, she had them eating out of one hand while she cracked the whip with the other. I was impressed, but too proud to admit it. Instead, I i
ncreased her work load and added extra pressure. I was still unsure if she was cut out for the job. We were already very busy and work was becoming stressful for everyone, and I wasn’t sure when HR was going to finish filling the necessary positions in my department.

“Kyle?”
Lily walked into my office without knocking.

I scowled at her. “Do you believe in knocking?”

She looked up from the file in her hand. “You’re right. I’ll knock next time.”

“What do you need now,
Lily?” I asked tiredly. It had been a long day and a long week. Though I would still be working from home over the weekend, I was anxious to get the hell out of the building for a couple of days.

Lily
pushed her glasses up on her nose, forgoing her contacts today. Her hair was pulled up in a messy bun, held together by a couple of pencils. She wore a white shirt with a little black scrap of lace peeking through the opening near her ample cleavage, and a red and navy plaid skirt that fit her like a layer of skin and stopped just above her knees. She wore a pair of navy heels, giving her five-three body an extra four inches of height. The glasses, the outfit, and the hair created the illusion of a naughty school teacher.

Admittedly, working near her was distracting. I thought she was pretty before
, but since she let her hair revert back to its natural colors in shades of reds and browns, took out her eyebrow ring, and eased back on the eyeliner her face glowed with a gentle beauty I didn’t quite see before. She still wore too many bracelets on her wrists, even when she was wearing a long sleeve shirt, and I was sure she was still very much inked under her clothes. The three tiny stars tattooed just behind her ear were still visible when she pulled her hair back, and every once in a while I would catch a glimpse of her tongue ring. Memories of that studded tongue flicking over mine often had me adjusting myself during the work day. It didn’t help matters when she dressed like a school teacher in need of a spanking.

I just need to get
laid
; I thought as she rounded my desk and stood beside me. I inhaled the light floral scent that followed her throughout the office and was thankful I was sitting down and my growing erection could be well hidden. I didn’t know what was wrong with me, why I was unable to look at her without thinking dirty thoughts. The woman drove me crazy, infuriated and frustrated the hell out of me. I often had the desire to throttle her, yet my body had a different reaction.

“I was looking at the report for the Hillsdale file,” she said, laying the file out on my desk in front of me. “There’s a huge discrepancy in here, a very expensive discrepancy.”

I followed her finger down the report as she read. Her breath feathered over my face. It was scented with chocolate and coffee. I was just beginning to wonder how that would taste when I saw the “expensive discrepancy.”

“Shit,” I hissed, snatching the paper up. “Who put this together?”

“Samantha Greski,” she said, absent mindedly scratching her head. “I checked the computer log to see who did it.”

“We can’t afford mistakes like this, and this isn’t her first.”

“Or second or third,” Lily said. “I checked on a few of her other files. She’s been very careless.”

“Fire her,” I commanded, slamming the file shut. “And then fix this.”

“How about we just move her to another department?” Lily asked, taking the file from me.

Scowling, I leaned back in my chair and looked up at her. “I’m assuming you have a pro
blem firing a person, which is a problem in of itself.”

She rolled her pretty
gray eyes. “I’m not too soft to fire anyone, Kyle. I just don’t think this is the right position for her. She took it because you told her to and she didn’t feel like she had much of a choice if she wanted to keep a job.”

“You’ve been in the company for
six weeks,” I said, and sarcastically added “I’m eager to hear your suggestions.”

Entirely too comfortable in her boss’s office,
Lily turned and sat her round ass on the edge of my desk.

“I think she should take a supervisor position in customer service,” she said.

“Oh, I knew this would be good,” I sighed and shook my head.

“You said yourself in her employee reviews that she is dedicated, kind, and e
ager to please,” Lily argued.

“Those reviews are confidential,” I growled.

“Yeah, but technically, I’m her boss. That doesn’t apply to me. I think she would do really well in a customer service capacity, and if you think about it, you’ll probably agree.”

I was annoyed that she was sitting on my desk throwing me suggestions about how to take care of an employee after
only being with the company for less than two months. I was further perturbed by my own inability to come up with a decent plan to keep Samantha employed instead of hurrying to fire her when in the past I had nothing but good things to say about her.

“You have a week to move her to another position,” I said grudgingly.

“Thank you,” she beamed. “I’ll go tell her.”

“When you’re finished, have her give you all of her accounts.” I smirked and said “You get to spend the weekend fixing all of her mistakes.”

Her mouth fell open but only very briefly before she recovered herself.

“Is that a problem?” I asked. “Weekend work will often be a part of your pos
ition, even when we are in our slower periods.”

“It’s fine,” she said with a sigh.

“You’ll have to save your partying for another time, Miss Whitman,” I said, turning my eyes back to my computer screen.

“I suggest you stop making assumptions about me,
Mr. Sterling
,” she said. I looked up just in time to watch the door close behind her.

~~~

Monday morning as I walked into my office, Lily followed close behind me carrying my breakfast and coffee and my appointment book. The glasses were gone and her hair was down, but her skirt was shorter than what could be deemed work-appropriate, and the buttons on her light purple shirt looked as if they were about to pop off due to the pressure exerted by her breasts. It took great effort for me to tear my eyes away from those buttons and to look into her tired eyes.

Her eyebrow was raised and I realized that she had caught me staring.

“Would it be more convenient for you if I took my shirt off and worked in my bra?” she asked, setting my breakfast down on the desk.

It would have been just as wise for me to ignore her question as it would have been for her not to ask it in the first place, but I didn’t always behave wisely.

“Only if you’re wearing the black bra you had on last Friday,” I said, without cracking a smile or giving any indication that I was being funny.

“You’re in luck,” she said, also not giving any indication of being humored. “I just happen to be wearing that very bra.”

I almost looked at her chest again. I wondered if her nipples were still pierced and remembered the brief moment my hands had closed over her jeweled breasts, clad in probably the same bra we were speaking of.

I shook myself of my thoughts and quickly sat down before she noticed my erection.

“You look terrible,” I said. She looked like she hadn’t slept all weekend. “I hope you got more work done than partying.”

Lily
rolled her eyes and set my appointment book down on my desk with more force than necessary.

“The work is complete,
boss
. You have a nine-thirty telephone conference with Nuland & Smith and a luncheon with Mangini at twelve-thirty. The company car will be ready for you at ten after.”

“I’ll need you to accompany me on the Mangini luncheon, but you better drink plenty of coffee between now
and then. I don’t want you looking as exhausted as you do now.”

“Good idea,” she said, taking my coffee. She put the mug to her pretty mouth and took a long sip. She licked her plump lips, licking away the tiny drops of co
ffee that had been left there. It was an innocent action, but I had to quickly sit down to hide how it made me feel. She put my mug back on my desk and without a word walked out of my office.

Holy shit
.

I picked up the mug and looked at the light coating of red lipstick that was left on one side. I took a sip where she had taken a sip, and it did nothing to help my erection. I quickly put the mug down and threw myself into my work in an attempt to shake
Lily from my mind.

At five minutes after noon,
Lily met me in front of my office. She no longer looked exhausted. She appeared alert and full of energy.

“You look better,” I told her as we headed to the elevators.

“I took a nap,” she shrugged.

I narrowed my eyes at her. “You took a nap on company time?”

“It was necessary. It’s not like I shagged my boss in his office on company time.
That
would be
unnecessary
.” She gave me a knowing look, forcing me to abandon the topic.

In the elevator,
Lily stepped close to me. Her breasts lightly brushed against me as she straightened my tie and smoothed my shirt. I inhaled her scent as she brushed off my jacket before she nodded approvingly and stepped away.

“Do I meet your approval?” I asked dryly.

“I hate your tie,” she said easily. “It looks like something my grandpa would wear, and he’s dead. It looks like an old dead man’s tie.”

I looked down at my red and blue striped tie. Jessyca had given it to me more than five years ago. She was usually very good about fashion, but I had to agree with
Lily. It looked like something I swiped out of a thrift store. I was used to wearing it and put it on out of habit. I owned very nice clothes, but I didn’t like to spend a lot of time matching shirts with pants or ties with suits. Pretty much anything I threw together without thought matched, even if it was hideous like my tie.

On the way to the lobby, Pete from IT got on the elevator. Pete had been with the company for ten plus years, but I rarely spoke to him. I didn’t even know his last name or anythin
g about him, but Lily seemed to quickly have made friends with the man.

“Hey, Pete,” she chirped.

Pete beamed down at Lily. I almost made a disgusted sound but stopped short.

“Hi,
Lily,” he said. His eyes flitted over her body. “You look great.”

“Pete, I need something from you,” she said, exuding confidence.

Pete’s eyes widened, along with his grin. “Anything, sweetheart.”

“I need your tie.”

“My what?” he asked. The poor sucker probably thought she was going to ask him out on a date. I almost snorted at the idea of gorgeous Lily going out with balding, pudgy Pete.

“Your tie, babe,” she said, her fingers already loosening the knot around his neck.

Both Pete and I were dumbstruck at Lily’s nerve. Not many women were able to trap a man in an elevator and force him to take off his tie without any promise of kinky play with the accessory.

“Thank you, Pete. I’ll return it in a couple of hours,” she said as the elevator doors slid open.