The Hunt for Summer (NSC Industries) (8 page)

Her beautiful face
morphed into a tight grimace as she spotted the sticky goo now seeping out of
the machine like a monster from the 80’s film ‘The Blob’.

This should be fun.

She took hesitant
steps towards it and I was sure she thought the stuff was gonna jump on her and
eat her whole.

Her face crumpled
further as it spat a thick black tar at her and she jolted backwards when it
made a groaning chug, coughed and died its final death.

“Oh” She said quite
simply as her wide eyes turned to mine.

I shrugged and
turned back to my screen, desperately trying to hold on to the bark of laughter
that was threatening to erupt.

Her face was
classic. A mixture of ‘What the hell?’ and ‘Holy Shit’ and I bit my bottom lip
as she tiptoed quietly across the room in an attempt not to anger the machine
further.

“Oh” she repeated as
she stood a foot away from the cabinet and leaned forward to peer at it as her
face turned away in case it expelled something else at her.

“‘Oh’ isn’t gonna
fix it, Red” I said to her as she shuffled a little closer.

She turned and frowned
at me “Do you want me to go out and buy another or get the maintenance guy’s
onto it?”

I did bark out a
laugh then and gave her a sardonic look “Have you met our maintenance guy’s,
Red?”

She shook her head
faintly and then jumped back as the percolator decided to make one last attempt
at existence and shot out a solid object through the spout.

Red scrunched up her
face and took a step closer to identify the item and I grimaced when I realised
what it was.

She picked it up and
studied it with a confused expression before her head slowly turned towards me
and her brows lifted excessively high.

I coughed,
straightened my back and returned her expression as I silently told her I was
her boss and not to speak a single word.

Her lips pursed now
and she narrowed her eyes until I could only see a sliver of the blueness
through her eyelids.

“Mr Hunt?” she
questioned and I gave her a blasé look.

“Miss Summers, do
you have a problem?”

She ran her tongue
over her top teeth as she flicked the item between her fingers. “Well Mr Hunt,
I
don’t necessarily have a problem, but the machine seems to have an adverse
dislike to having a paperclip shoved up its important parts.”

I steepled my
fingers and rested my elbows on the desk as I regarded her, “We don’t all have
a dislike at having something shoved up our important parts, do we Miss
Summers?”

She huffed heavily
and bit severely into her bottom lip in an effort to hold back the feisty
retort I knew was on the tip of her tongue, then she smiled with a wicked twinkle
in her eyes and my stomach clenched in unease. “I’ll go and buy another then,
Mr Hunt. By the way, a Miss Denver’s just rung. She didn’t want to talk to you
personally but insisted on leaving a message” she taunted.

I clamped my teeth
together and closed my eyes as she continued, reading the message from where
she had written it down on a notebook. “She said and I repeat ‘You are a
fucking underdeveloped bastard and I have already found someone with a much
bigger dick than yours, so go wank in a corner and smile at yourself in a
mirror, you sad fucking twat’.”

Her face held an
elated expression as she smiled sweetly then tipped her head and exited the
room and I could tell from the movement of her shoulders from behind that she
was laughing.

Revenge is sweet
Lucas, and you will enjoy every second you deliver it!

***

Red arrived back an
hour later with a new coffeemaker and a hot chocolate from Starbucks and I
glared at her when I realised she hadn’t bothered to purchase me a drink. She
had just smirked and taken an exaggerated slurp of her bloody drink, before
savagely biting a chunk out of a chocolate muffin as she closed her eyes in
ecstasy and devoured the whole bloody cake.

I had just closed my
eyes and pictured her bent over my knee as I spanked the living daylights out
of her!

We had a meeting to
attend with Nate and as we entered the elevator to ascend to the next floor a
wicked idea began to arise in my head and I smirked to myself as we both exited
the lift onto the 50
^th
floor.

“Red, before we go
in I think there’s something you should be aware of” I said to her and she
turned to look at me with those beautiful huge blue eyes and I nearly backed
out… but only nearly.

“What?” she asked
innocently and I swallowed back the wicked grin I was dying to deliver.

“Well, Mr Carter
likes all the P.A’s to sit on his desk, legs crossed at the knee as they take
notes” I told her seriously.

She gave me a
startled look, then sighed and nodded in resignation “Right… okay…”

I smirked to myself
as Leah smiled at us whilst she spoke on the phone to someone and gestured with
her chin for us to just go down to Nate’s office.

“Mrs Fox” I acknowledged
Ava, Nate’s P.A and Mason’s wife, as we approached her desk. She smiled widely
at us before she rose from her seat and embraced Red in a tight hug.

“Little Willow” She
greeted Red as she pulled back slightly and cast an eye over her with a
concerned gaze, “You’ve lost weight, Lay.”

“Christ, you sound
like your husband, love” Red scolded light-heartedly.

Ava laughed and
grabbed Red’s arm as she pulled her towards Nate’s office and they both gossiped
like bloody fish wives.

I entered the room
behind them and my stomach bubbled in excitement as I awaited Red’s delivery of
my lie.

She was still bloody
nagging with Ava as they both seated themselves in chairs beside each other and
acted as though they were the only people in the room.

I plonked myself disappointedly
into the remaining chair as I looked at Nate and he rolled his eyes at the blathering
women.

“Never…” Ava gasped.

Red nodded
dramatically. “Yup, she says he has a
huge
penis but looking at him you
wouldn’t think so. I mean he’s okay looking but, well the way she gushes about
him you’d think he had a bloody 24 carat gold plated, 12 inch dick with an
extra appendage for clitoral stimulation.”

Nate spluttered out
his coffee and my eyes widened but they seemed oblivious to us. “Well I heard
he’s really good at oral… knows exactly what to do with his tongue and his
little finger” Ava continued and they both sighed dreamily.

“Yeah, but… I mean,
look at him. He looks like the sort of guy that would ask politely for a blow
job and then feel the need to sterilise himself before, and buy you flowers to
thank you for the experience after, instead of bloody grabbing your hair and
ramming it straight down your throat as they growled your name” Red said and
they both looked into the distance with unfocussed gazes and sighed heavily.

Nate shot me a look
and I nodded respectfully as we both considered which category we fell into.

“Well don’t say
anything but he came into the club last weekend and the word that circulated
when he left was that he had brought three girls off at exactly the same time
whilst he sucked off another bloke” Red revealed with excitement.

I nodded humbly in
awe of a man I’d never met and Nate pursed his lips in reverence.

“Holy shit” Ava
declared as she settled her hand at her throat, “I think Mason and me might book
in for a voyeur session, should be an interesting night.”

Red clicked her
tongue and gave Ava a lift of her eyebrow “You’ll have to put your name down on
the list, love; he has a backlist of around twenty eight waiting for an
experience with The God.”

“The God?” Nate
asked, inviting himself into the conversation.

Red turned to him
and nodded firmly, “Oh yeah and from what I’ve heard he has thoroughly earned
that label.”

“Respect” Nate said
and pursed his lips as he went into a dazed expression.

“Who the hell are
you talking about?” I asked Red, now including myself in the chinwag.

Red and Ava both
stared at me in astonishment as though I was utterly stupid and I glared back
when they made me feel like a fucking dumb bastard who wasn’t up to date with
the latest important scandal.

“Oh my God Lucas,”
Red declared, now degrading my boss status to gossip buddy “You know, Liam ‘The
God’ Martin.”

My eyes widened when
I pictured the skinny little knobhead Red was talking about. “Fuck off!” I
declared in disbelief.

Red just nodded
significantly “Oh yes. Got a reputation any man would be proud to hold.”

We were all silent
for a while as we each imagined Liam ‘The God’ Martin in action and I silently prompted
myself to book in for a voyeur session of my own.

I shook the images
from my head as I lifted my eyebrows at Red and tipped my head towards Nate’s
desk.

She looked confused
for a moment before realisation shifted her features and she nodded.

I bit back the
laughter that was threatening to surface as she lifted out of her seat and
teetered on her cream heels towards his desk. She plonked her delicious
backside on the edge of Nate’s desk and poised her iPad ready for action.

Nate lifted his
eyebrows at her and then Red fulfilled my wildest dreams and dramatically
crossed her legs over her knee.

It was short lived
however when she leaned towards Nate and said “Now we all know what a dirty
bastard you are, Nate, but even your lowly employees know how you like to look
up women’s skirts.”

I groaned and rolled
my eyes as Nate’s found mine and an arrogant smirk lifted his lips “What
have
you been telling your P.A, Mr Hunt?”

Red turned and
winked at me before she jumped off Nate’s desk and retook her chair and I
narrowed my eyes on her, “You could have told me you knew him.”

Ava laughed loudly
“Lucas, Layla knows
everybody
!”

I huffed loudly as I
realised I was the last person to know this but then I waggled my eyebrows “But
she didn’t know I was her boss when she started yesterday.”

They all looked at
me with high brows and Red scoffed “That really doesn’t say a lot for you, Mr
Hunt.”

Ava laughed and got
out of her seat and pointed to Red “Mason say’s Thursday night is Xbox night
and prepare to die bitch!”

Nate groaned loudly,
“Awww fuck, Ava. I’ve no hope if little Willow’s playing.”

Red and Ava both
looked at Nate with a smirk “You don’t have any hope anyway. Even Liv
slaughters you” They both said together and laughed.

I felt a kind of
stab in my chest at their playfulness and Ava tipped her head at me “You’re
welcome to join us Lucas. Thursday night, 8:30 bring a controller and a
bottle.”

I gave her my best
grin “Yeah okay, that’d be good thanks.”

I’d give anything a
go as long as it took me close to Red for a night.

What the Hell Lucas,
you’re fucking pussy whipped!

“We play for money
Mr Hunt, bring cash and prepare to die” Red smirked and I shook my head.

“If we’re talking
Call of Duty then you have no hope,
little Willow
” I said and her whole
face lifted beautifully with her naughty grin.

Christ, she was
utterly stunning, from her large bright blue eyes to her striking red curls, to
the soft slope of her pert little nose and the supple plumpness of her perfect
pink lips.

A tight bubble
popped in my chest and I frowned to myself at the sensation.

These new feelings
that I was experiencing with Red were really confusing, and I quickly changed
the subject to move past the light hearted conversation, just so I would have a
reason to divert my concentration away from her for a while and give my
emotions chance to find their equilibrium.

“So, the Mohan convention?”
I asked Nate.

He nodded and
glanced at Red. “You okay away from the Panther to attend?”

Red expressed
confusion and my heartbeat sped up in excitement when I realised she would have
to attend the conference in France with me.