Indecent secrets, p.7
Indecent Secrets, page 7
My eyebrows rose. “You know the school of rationalism.”
“I was forced to read Ayn Rand just like everyone else,” Leigh said breezily, sitting down across from me in one of the plush chairs meant for clients. I didn’t bother to hide my stare as she crossed those long legs of hers. “Rationalism is just a way to avoid personal responsibility. I can appreciate in Rand’s case why she retreated into that method of thinking—it was a trauma response. But rationalism is like nihilism, it’s an immature way of thinking. And I don’t mean that in the way people use immature as an insult. I mean that it’s a sign you’re choosing not to truly mature yourself. It’s thinking at a juvenile stage.”
“You would’ve been a delight to have in my classes,” I noted. “You know your work and you have a strong opinion. I’d like to set you on some students of mine.”
“Oh, give the students a break.” Leigh grinned. “I am older than they are by a good few years.”
“So you have the opinion that we have an obligation to help one another, and that by being in the world we are partly responsible for its failures.”
“Yes. ‘You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it’,” Leigh quoted. “From the Talmud.”
“Spoken like a true activist.”
Leigh shrugged, but I thought I saw a flicker of… something in her eyes. Was it fear?
“You never answered my question,” she said, shifting the topic. “How was your day?”
“Slow,” I said honestly. “And you never told me what you found out.”
“It seems that everyone has an idea that your uncle vetoed.” Leigh held out a notepad for me to take. “I wrote down the gist of a lot of them but I asked them to compile a proper proposal and email it to me so that I could go through it and eliminate the ones that we don’t want to do and prioritize the ones we do.”
I skimmed the list. “This is pretty exhaustive.”
“Like I said, everyone had an idea that your uncle vetoed. Many of them had multiple ideas. There was a culture of frustration here. He seemed to be of the opinion that if something had been working for the company all these years, it would always work for the company.”
“But with how things are advancing in technology and the social sphere…”
“Precisely,” she said with a succinct nod. “I think that things moved slowly enough that if it worked in 1910 it would work for you in 1960. But from 1980 to today? No way. Things have accelerated at an unprecedented speed.”
I scrutinized her face, but Leigh looked completely at ease and eager once again. There was no sign of whatever I’d seen in her eyes that one moment. Had there even been anything there? Or had I imagined it?
There was one surefire way I knew to get a woman off her guard and revealing the things she didn’t really want me to see. I stood up.
“Excellent work,” I told her. “I appreciate you, Leigh, I want you to know that.”
“Why do I feel like there’s a ‘but’ coming?”
“Oh, there’s no ‘but’,” I said with a smirk. “I just didn’t want you to think that what I’m about to say is the only reason I keep you around.”
“And what are you about to say?” Leigh’s voice and face turned coy.
“Sit on the desk,” I ordered.
Leigh bit her lip in a vain attempt to hide a smile. She looked absolutely delighted, like she’d been looking forward to something like this all day.
Maybe she had been.
The idea that she’d been hoping for this had my cock swelling. I loved her enthusiasm and shameless desire.
Leigh hopped up onto the desk, her hands wrapped around the edge of it as I approached her. I took my time, sizing her up. She had worn a tempting skirt, one that hugged her ass and legs, but her blouse was looser, more conservative, keeping her professional.
“Spread your legs,” I purred.
In a tight skirt like that, Leigh couldn’t really get her legs spread without pushing it all the way up, which was exactly what I wanted. I didn’t bother to hide my predatory grin as she hiked her skirt up, revealing inch after inch of delicious bare skin.
When the hem was up around her waist, she spread her legs like I’d told her. Her gaze was on me the entire time, her lips slightly parted, like she was holding her breath.
Mmmm. She wore pale pink lace panties underneath, the kind I could easily rip off. In a longer skirt like this one, nobody would notice. They’d just think they couldn’t see her panty line, which was always the goal when wearing tight skirts anyway.
I slid my hands up her legs, massaging her thighs. From this angle, I could stare down right into her face, and I could see the outline of her breasts through her blouse.
Leigh stared at me like she was already desperate for an orgasm, her eyes dark and wide and her bottom lip caught between her teeth. I moved my hands around to her ass and yanked her forward, pressing the outline of my hard cock right up against her lace-covered pussy.
Leigh whimpered, her hands tightening around the edge of the desk. What a good girl. She knew I hadn’t said she could touch me. She was waiting for orders.
It was such a delight to have someone properly trained already. Not that I hadn’t had fun with inexperienced women, but there was already so much going on with this mission. To have a woman who knew how to be a good submissive to me, and knew what she wanted… it was hot.
I ground my cock against her and Leigh’s mouth fell open, a moan strangled at the back of her throat.
“Yeah, you want this, don’t you?” I murmured. It was written all over her face. “You’re already trembling. You want me to push you back onto this desk and fuck you?”
I kept my movements up, watching as her face went slack and her eyelashes fluttered. “What if I just slid my cock in right now? Shoved your panties aside and skipped right to fucking you against the desk? You’d love that, wouldn’t you?”
“Yes, master,” Leigh gasped. “Please, can I—please, give me your cock, I’ll be so good for you later, I’ll be so good and take care of you, you can tie me up and tease me all you want, please fuck me right now—”
“Mmm, I wonder.” I gently wrapped my hand around her throat and she made a lovely choking noise. “Would you be able to get off just from grinding on my clothed cock? Are you that desperate?”
And in the span of an instant, the mood was ruined as a knock sounded on the door.
God fucking damn it.
“Mr. Lawton?” It was Rebecca. “I have some papers for you.”
I took a deep breath. Leigh looked like she might scream with frustration. “Of course, Rebecca.”
I pulled back from Leigh, who quickly shoved her skirt back down and hopped off the desk. Luckily, the interruption definitely killed my boner, and I was able to sit down at my desk with a smile right as Rebecca opened the door.
She headed right for me, ignoring Leigh and smiling as she handed me the papers. “Here you are, I know you need these by the end of the day.”
There was no way she could’ve heard us unless she had her damn ear to the door, and she couldn’t have seen us, so I doubted she was actually trying to sabotage any sex and just wanted to continue to stay in my good graces. Great.
“Thanks, I appreciate it.” I smiled at her, then looked over at Leigh. “I just need to sign these and then I’ll be good to head out. Would you like to grab dinner so we can finish discussing things?”
“Sure.” Leigh shrugged casually like it was no skin off her nose. “I’m all wrapped up, although are you sure you don’t want me to have my own office space?”
“I just think that since you’re being employed by me personally and not by the company we don’t want to set a poor precedent. I’m not going to abuse my position or make it seem like I don’t know the proper steps to take.” I flipped through the papers.
Obviously I couldn’t really sign these. I wasn’t actually Jack Lawton and it would be fraud. But I could get him a copy to sign.
Rebecca stood there, listening to us, and seemed unsure whether she should say anything. But when I continued to read through the papers and ignore both her and Leigh, she seemed to realize that there wasn’t anything more she could do.
“Um… should I go, Mr. Lawton?” she asked.
“Oh, yes, please do, enjoy your night Rebecca.” I smiled at her and then went back to the papers.
She nodded and left the room.
Leigh raised an eyebrow once the door was closed behind us again. “She has a crush on you.”
“She doesn’t know me.”
“No, but you’re handsome and you look real good taking charge.”
I put the papers in my briefcase, unsigned. I’d get them to Jack, then return them signed the next day.
As tempted as I was to resume fucking Leigh on the desk… that had been too close a call. Rebecca might not have caught us this time, but I unfortunately suspected that Leigh was right and that she might see me as a meal ticket the way previous secretaries had seen Jack’s uncle. I couldn’t let Leigh be caught in the middle of that because someone else was jealous, and I could still cause a scandal for Jack if people thought he was the type to have sex on his desk.
“Shall we?” I asked, indicating the door.
Leigh blinked at me, confused. “Shall we what?”
“Go to dinner.”
Leigh’s jaw ticked. “I thought…”
I jerked my head towards the door. “After what just happened?”
“I’m getting desk sex at some point,” Leigh vowed, gathering up her things. “You can’t promise a girl a good time like that and then take it away.”
“Whatever you say, pet,” I promised her, grinning as I opened the office door and held it for her.
Tonight, after my time with Leigh was over, I would look at those employee files I’d downloaded. Maybe Jack and I were wrong about our suspicions. Maybe it was just malicious office gossip and speculation because an unpopular man had died. But I was going to make sure I’d thoroughly cleared the nest of vipers before I invited Jack to step inside, one way or another.
Chapter 10
Leigh
* * *
Goddamn Rebecca.
I had been able to feel that hard cock between my legs, rubbing deliciously up against my pussy through my panties. The sensation of lace and cotton dragging against our bodies had been so erotic. I’d been this close to getting fucked well and hard on the desk, and then she had to go and ruin it.
I’d been so keyed up all day. While I had interrogated employees, trying to find out information that could help me take this place down, my mind had been invaded continuously by thoughts of Jack and what he could do to me.
Yes, I knew it had been a long time since I’d had decent, let alone good, sex. I’d been wrapped up in work and it was difficult to find a man who could really give me what I wanted. So many of them were either inexperienced, or too harsh, objectifying me in a way that didn’t feel sexy but more like I was just a pair of tits and ass to them.
Jack was going to fuck me like I hadn’t been fucked in ages, and I couldn’t wait.
It lurked in the back of my mind as I scribbled down notes, making me feel hot all over, my clothes too confining. I knew that if he asked me to beg for him, I’d do it instantly. I needed this—far more than I’d realized. One of those things you didn’t realize you were missing so badly until you actually had it again.
Of course, sex wasn’t the only thing on my mind. It was just a lot more distracting than I’d thought it would be. To be someone’s submissive again, and for a man I knew could handle me and liked my mind and my personality, who would dom me the way I wanted and didn’t think just some basic dirty talk and rough thrusting did the trick… it drove me to distraction.
But I was here for more than just myself.
The employees I talked to had a lot of good ideas, but not all of them would work for my purpose. It seemed that Jack’s uncle really had refused to change things, and usually those things he didn’t want to change involved things like promoting women, shifting to more social media based advertising and outreach, and keeping up with the pace of modern society.
None of them seemed to think about the fact that even if all these things changed and the company actually treated its own workers equitably, that wouldn’t shift what the company was doing at its very foundations: destroying fragile ecosystems and driving out the small-town populations and businesses that had been in those areas for decades.
One person I spoke to clearly didn’t get it. “We need to be more aggressive about recruiting from local people when we move into a new area,” he said.
Right. Because people wanted to give up their family businesses they’d cared about for years and then work to destroy their hometown forest. Definitely!
It made my blood boil as these people lamented how unfairly they were treated while completely missing the point of what they were promoting and who they were working for. All that mattered was what affected them, not others.
I would have to remember that Jack wasn’t necessarily any different. As much as I wanted to fuck him, I couldn’t let my lust blind me to his flaws. He could’ve taken one look at his uncle’s company and decided to dismantle it himself. The fact that he hadn’t said a lot. I shouldn’t have to convince him to do it.
But I would. Oh, I definitely would.
If only I could get a damn orgasm and not be interrupted by meddling secretaries.
Rebecca had no idea what she’d done, of course. If she had, she would’ve made it very clear with something like a triumphant smirk in my direction or a scandalized scowl on her face. I couldn’t quite tell if she liked me or not. The way she’d looked at me just now…
But her starry eyes over Jack were obvious. She possibly saw me as a threat. Well, there was no need for her to worry. First of all, I had no interest in actually dating the man. I wanted good sex and I wanted this company destroyed, simple as that. She could be his shoulder to cry on when I’d dismantled Lawton from the inside out.
But second of all it didn’t matter, because Jack didn’t strike me as the kind of guy who’d sleep with his secretary. Not after his uncle’s reputation dragged him down. With me it was a different story. I didn’t feel so much like an employee as an equal. Rebecca was directly under him.
Third of all, did she really like him? Or did she like the money and power that he had? He was handsome, sure, but if Rebecca was this starry-eyed already I had to wonder how much of it was an act, and I was sure Jack did too, given how he’d handled me and the other women at the party.
Not that Rebecca would listen to me if I told her all of this. I’d just have to be careful around her. If she saw me as competition, she might try to dig stuff up on me in order to discredit me to Jack, and she’d find out the truth about me. I couldn’t let that happen.
My best bet would probably be to act friendly around here, which was annoying given that I currently was irritated. I now had to wait all through dinner to get fucked.
Jack picked a nice place, though. It was a sustainable farm-to-table restaurant. Bougie and wildly expensive, of course, but at least the ethics were there. I didn’t begrudge people an expensive night on the town as long as it wasn’t done on the backs of underpaid and exploited farm workers.
Maybe this could be an opening for me to discuss the issues with his company.
The hostess took us to a table by the window, which allowed us to watch people go by on the street. I liked it, although I was kind of wishing we’d been put in one of the booths in the back to give us some privacy. The universe really didn’t want me to get laid today.
“I love places like these,” I said, once our waitress took our order and left us each with a glass of wine. “It’s so great to see people working with family-owned businesses that compensate their workers fairly.”
Jack leaned back and tipped his head at me. “You’re really passionate about this kind of stuff.”
“Well, aren’t you? You’re a philosophy professor.”
“I think you’re confusing me with an ethics professor,” he said before taking a drink of his wine. “I ponder the nature of our existence, I don’t debate what is and isn’t right.”
“And yet it’s so funny how those two can often be related.”
“Well, consider the tech startups you’ve helped. I looked at your website and testimonials. I wouldn’t call all of those people ethical, would you?”
“Not at all. But unfortunately I can’t always decide to follow my principles in my business. But I hope that in helping these startups I’m giving smaller, newer businesses a fair shot. A lot of large companies come in and destroy local businesses. We talk a lot about the environment and I’m passionate about it, but I think that can lead to people thinking about the big picture. They see whole forests destroyed, and it’s terrible. But they forget that there’s also the little picture—small businesses, local families—they can live in harmony in the local area and work with the environment. These big business don’t. And they entirely drive out fair competition and isn’t that what our country was built on?”
“You realize what Lawton Industries does for a living, right?” Jack grinned at me. “I wouldn’t exactly call us environmentally friendly.”
I considered that for a moment. “Mmm, you raise a good point. Perhaps I’ve finally sold my soul to the devil after all.”
“Maybe not, but you might be in danger of becoming a hypocrite.” He smirked.
“Perish the thought.” I feigned shock and pressed a hand to my chest. “But you do realize that you’re the CEO, and you have the power to implement some environmentally-healing changes to the company.”
“Were any of those ideas in the proposals that you wrote down?”
“Yes, a couple,” I lied. “I’ll include them when I send all the rest to you. But only if you want to. It would be a lot to take the company in such a bold direction but… it might also be what you need if you want to distinguish yourself from your uncle.”
