Chapter 7 — Ross

I wondered whether it was a mistake taking her to the local bar. I’d had such a fucking long day and the woman knew her shit. That had made me even more curious about her. There wasn’t a thing that I asked her to do or was about to ask her to do that she hadn’t already thought about. It made me realize that she was way above the girls that had been working for me up until then.

Don’t get me wrong, once I told them what to do, they were always happy to run with it. But there was no thinking outside the box. Not like Olivia did, and she had only been working for me for one day. I felt like a teenager with a big crush on someone’s mom. Even though we were around the same age, or maybe she was slightly younger than me, I couldn’t help but be happy that she didn’t whine and bitch about working so many hours on her first day. She’d had an early start, but that didn’t stop her from working at the same rhythm that she’d been doing from the moment that she came into the office.

“Tell me something,” I purred seductively as she sat next to me at the bar. She was so close that I could almost smell her smooth floral fragrance. As she flicked her hair in my direction, I could smell her vanilla scented shampoo. I started to get dirty thoughts and wondered if the rest of her body smelled just as sweet. The thoughts went further, and I began to wonder if she was clean shaven or if she left just a little bit of hair down there to play in? Seeing her face in the spotlight in the dark bar just emphasized her green eyes and now it was my dick that was thinking outside the box. It seemed to have a mind of its own when it came to Olivia.

“Yes?” she asked softly as she avoided looking at me. That could only mean one thing. She was fucking attracted to me too and I knew that I had that effect on most women, but until now I thought she was immune to me. Or maybe she wasn’t into men? No matter, she was definitely interested in me now.

“Why the fuck are you a VA when you’re so damn talented?”

She seemed surprised by my little outburst, or it could have been because I couldn’t help but brush my hand along her shoulder. Shit, she probably thought I wanted to see her hands again. I still hadn’t extricated myself from that fiasco this morning.

“I’ve only worked for you one day, and I’m sure that you’ve had plenty of secretaries that can do the same thing that I’ve done today.”

I shook my head. “You’ve got to be kidding me. You’re one step ahead of the game all the time. I ask you for one thing and you give me three options. Graphs, data that I haven't even requested yet. You’re like a machine.”

I laughed as I said, “A female version of me. Always thinking on your toes. I like that.”

She blushed. “Wow. Do you talk to all your secretaries like that?”

“Only the beautiful, intelligent ones.” Shit, I was getting so sappy. I needed to get home. Better still, just take her home, so that I didn’t get any more thoughts about all the things that I wanted to do to her. And I couldn’t get them out of my dirty mind. I was fucking trying but failing miserably. And as she’d pointed out, she’d only been working with me for one day. One day and I couldn’t control myself. What the fuck was wrong with me?.

“My mom’s sick. She has dementia and since she developed the disease, I’ve been her sole caregiver.” She sighed. Suddenly I felt like such a dick for thinking about sex. Always sex.

“My dad died in a car accident about three years ago. I think that’s what set Mom off. Well, no one really knows. The doctors say sometimes a shock can trigger a disease early.”

“How old is she?”

“Only fifty-one. She had me when she was pretty young and my brother ten years later.”

“Shit, and she has dementia already?”

“Yes, there are quite a few that suffer from it early on. She had me right out of high school. That’s when her and Dad got married, they were childhood sweethearts and they always had the same spark in their eyes when they were together. They never lost that; they were always so in love, right up to the end.”

“Young love.”

She shrugged. “Yes, I think that she couldn’t cope without him. He was taken away from her so quickly. I went to Harvard with a scholarship, attended business school and became, the executive director for Swan Kick Techies. That’s me in a nutshell, but I’m sure you saw all that on my resumé? Anyway, when Mom went into depression I had to help her. I thought that she would snap out of it and she just needed reassurance and love around her. I didn’t expect her to get worse, but once she did, I quit my job.”

Shit, she had been working for one of the top IT firms in the district and I remembered seeing it on her resumé but then for some crazy reason—maybe because I see so many resumés and just assumed that it got mixed up with another one—I didn’t think put the information together with her. Maybe because it didn’t make sense to be in such a high position only to end up as a VA. No one did that, no one. Except her. “You were a director at such a young age?”

She nodded and waved her hand as if she was trying to dismiss it. “But now I’m just a virtual assistant, so the past is the past.”

She was acting as if she wasn’t doing something worthwhile and I hated the way that she was shortchanging herself.

“Hey, you shouldn’t dismiss it like that. It’s a lot more than that. You’ve sacrificed your life to look after your mom. That’s admirable.”

I thought for a moment about all the selfish acts that I’d committed in my life, and for one brief second—while our eyes locked and my dick wasn’t out of control—I stored the memory of her face.

She shook her head as her phone vibrated on the bar. “Crap, I better go. It’s probably my aunt.”

“She’s looking after your mom now?”

She nodded. “For six weeks, right?”

I don’t know what came over me, but as she stood in front of me curiosity got the better of me and I put my lips against hers. I held her firmly next to me, away from the bar stools we’d just been sitting on, and then I deepened the kiss into something more. I expected her to move, but she held still for a minute before she started to respond as my tongue explored her mouth.

It was a kiss so damn powerful, I felt tempted to take her on top of the damn bar. I did everything to remember that I was in a public place, yet my fingers started to explore her shoulders and the nape of her neck. The bar was nearly empty, part of the reason I enjoyed going there, it never had much of a crowd. It was too low key for the younger crowd and perfect for people like us, the type that just wanted a quiet drink after work without the loud noise and busting music that meant that we couldn’t even converse in peace. Yet, right now I didn't want to converse, I wanted so much more.

I felt so determined to hold on to her and not let her go. She couldn’t move even if she tried. It was a passion that I’d never known I possessed. I had never kissed, held hands, or done anything affectionate in public.

Yet here I was, kissing my new virtual assistant, and then I felt a throbbing so hard between my legs that I had to pull away.

“Shit, I shouldn’t have done that!” My voice was ragged, and her eyes were still closed. She seemed to be mesmerized, as if she was trying to recover from the kiss.

“That won’t happen again,” I murmured, as I quickly got a twenty out of my pocket and dropped it on the bar.

She said nothing as I left and said, “Sorry.”

That was a fucking lie. I wasn’t fucking sorry, but I had to be in control. Especially if I wanted this deal to go through. I hesitated at the door as I was about to leave. I felt like shit at not behaving like the perfect gentleman and offering her a ride home. Yet, I needed to leave and just get on with it. Otherwise, I’d do something that I’d regret, and I’d lose the best secretary that I’d ever had, and Alec would probably just chop off my nuts for messing with her.