Training Tessa (Hot Texas Bosses BDSM Erotica) (2 page)

“I really need this job,” I said. “I’ll do whatever it—”

Dixon interrupted me. “I don’t know if my brother explained to you…the work can be
long
and
hard
…”

What was that glimmer in his eyes when he said the last three words? And why did it make me tingly all over?

“I can do it. As long and hard as it takes. I’m single. I don’t have a family to take care of.” Was I babbling? Damn, I needed this job.

“Boyfriend?” Dixon asked.

“No. I only know one person in this town, and she’s getting married and moving to Austin.”

The brothers exchanged a look I couldn’t read.

“So you’ll be completely at our disposal?” Mason asked. “No distractions?”

“No distractions. At all.”

“All right,” he said. “Since today’s Friday, you can start Monday. You’ll get your first paycheck Friday after next.”

“Mason,” his brother said.

“Hm?”

“Per our meeting last week, I’m in charge of the receptionist.”

Damn.
Did that mean he didn’t want to hire me?

“And I’m in charge of you,” Mason replied.

“Only out of courtesy for your advanced age. I own fifty percent of this company.”

“Fine.” Mason waved, as if to say, “Proceed.”

“You’re hired,” Dixon smiled broadly and I nearly melted into my chair. It was dangerous to have bosses this handsome. “If you sign the employment contract.”

Mason handed me a pile of stapled, legal-sized papers. “Take this to the lobby and read through it. If you still want the job, it’s yours.”

As I walked back to the lobby, I couldn’t believe my good luck. I sat down and started reading, but my mind kept wandering. I’d need to call my sister and brother and tell them the good news…and the clinic so they’d know the money was coming…”

Relief so overwhelmed me, tears pushed through and the words on the contract became a blur. I wasn’t going to let me family down after all.

But it wasn’t a done deal yet. I hadn’t signed the contract and I’d left the Maddox boys in Mason’s office together.

What if they were discussing me while I was sitting outside? What if they were having second thoughts? They hadn’t signed any paperwork yet, either.

I quickly flipped to the last page of the contract and signed my name. Seconds later I was tapping on the office door.

“Come in,” Dixon called as I pushed the door open. He was watching my face intently. “Do you still want to do it?”

What a ridiculous question. The pay was way beyond anything else I could get, especially with no contacts in Houston and little time to spare before my mother lost her room at the clinic. But they didn’t know all that.

“Yes, I’d love to do it.” I laid the contract on Mason’s desk.

Dixon smiled at me. His expression made me feel like we now had a special secret between us, but, of course, I barely knew him. Did he always look at employees like that?

Mason cleared his throat and his brother was shaken from his thoughts. “Oh, dress code,” Dixon said. “Hair up. No flats. Two to four inch heels. Appropriate undergarments must be worn. We get visits from all kinds of influential people. Skirts and dresses only. No pantyhose. Thigh highs or bare legs only.”

I nodded quickly, although I was confused by the combination of the antiquated “no pants” rule with the odd “no pantyhose” rule.

But I had a job. I’d have money for rent and for the hospital, and hopefully a little left over to increase the size of my skirt wardrobe.

Chapter Two

I’d been at Maddox Bros. for three days and things couldn’t have gone better. So far, there’d been nothing difficult about the job at all.

Since the brothers were venture capitalists, silent partners in most businesses they invested in, the office phone didn’t ring more than once an hour, although they did have business associates who called them on their cell phones.

My phone system had a wireless headset that allowed me to move around the office, making a copy here and there, entering figures into spreadsheets, or sorting mail.

I hadn’t seen much of the brothers. Mason had worked in his office with the door closed Monday through Wednesday, coming and going only for lunch. Dixon had been on a business trip.

Things were so easy and calm, I was glad I hadn’t expressed my misgivings about the brothers to Jill on the day of the interview. She might have talked me out of taking the job.

Thursday was much like the previous three days, until Dixon came in around one, spent a few minutes in his brother’s office, and retired to his own.

I was a little disappointed he’d only had a quick “How’s it going?” for me when he walked in. I went back to making copies of documents I didn’t understand.

“Tessa, come here.” The command came in over Mason’s line, not that there was any mistaking his stern voice.

I hurried into his office. He scribbled something onto a legal pad. Looking up at me, he lifted his expensive-looking pen, pointing it toward my head. “This isn’t working.”

I was panicked.

This had to work. I didn’t have any other options. What could I do to fix it?

“I thought I’d done everything I was asked to do. Is it the quality of my—?”

“No. It has nothing to do with your work. It’s that.” He pointed again. “You’re hair. That bun.”

“I thought it was required.”

“My brother’s ridiculous idea. When he saw my dress code, he wanted to make up a rule of his own.”

“Oh.” What was I supposed to do? His brother was my direct boss…but Mason seemed to rule the roost around here…

“Take it down.”

My heart pounded. I couldn’t disobey a direct order. I reached back and removed the hair clip I’d bought especially for this job. My hair fell down around my shoulders.

“Mmm…much better.” His gaze moved from my hair, slowly down my body. My muscles tensed in a domino effect as his eyes brushed over them.

A strange knot formed in the pit of my stomach. His expression hadn’t changed that much, yet I knew he was examining me as a woman now.

I wasn’t used to getting this kind of personal scrutiny from an employer. It felt wrong. And exciting.

No, not exciting. At least not any more than any other forbidden thing might be exciting.

“Is there anything else?” I squeaked.

“No, that’s all for now.”

*****

All afternoon, I couldn’t stop thinking about the hair incident. Was I making too much out of it? Maybe it was normal for a boss to tell an employee how to wear her hair in Texas.

Still, I had an odd feeling about the episode. And I was more than a little disturbed about the way my body had welcomed Mason’s command, especially considering he wasn’t even my type.

I was relieved when Mason came out of his office at four, said a quick goodbye and left.

But seconds after he was out the door, his brother poked his head out of his office.

“Tessa, could you come here for a moment?”

I gulped hard and made my way down the hall. Was I in trouble?

When I followed Dixon through the doorway, I was surprised at the difference between the two brothers’ offices.

The door had been closed while he was out of town, and I’d had no reason to enter, but it was like a breath of fresh air.

Although the décor was subtle and masculine, something about the room reminded me of being at the ocean. Perhaps the blue color on the walls combined with the blue and khaki-colored fabric of the couch.

The desk was a nice medium oak finish, instead of the deep mahogany of his brother’s. And light streamed in from the ceiling-to-floor windows that made up the outside wall.

“Yes?” I asked when I came to a stop in front of his desk.

He frowned at me and looked even more like his brother. “Well, I called you in to see how your first week was going, but I see something of concern.”

Crap.

“The dress code requires you to wear your hair up in the office.”

“Yes, I had it that way, but your brother—”

“What about the rest of the dress code? Are you abiding by that?”

“Of course.”

He seemed even more annoyed at my answer. I remembered that his brother had set the rest of the dress code. Dixon was only responsible for the hair rule, the one rule I wasn’t in compliance with.

I watched his jaw tick and the thought crossed my mind that I might have gotten myself into the middle of some heavy-duty sibling rivalry.

“Did my brother check to see if you were in compliance with the other rules?”

“Huh? Um…no.”

“It’s not his job anyway. It’s mine. Turn to the side so I can look at your heels.”

I did as he asked, feeling ridiculous. But if my hair wasn’t in compliance, at least I knew my heels were.

“Okay,” he said. I turned to face him again. “But I don’t think you’re wearing a bra.”

I gasped. “Of course I am.”

“Show it to me.”

Show it to me.
His words replayed several times in my brain as I tried to decide if he’d really said them. A tingly warmth crept over me.

I knew I should quit at that moment. I should walk out and never return, but there was a badly-needed paycheck coming my way in a little over a week. At the very least, I needed to keep this job until I could find another one.

And there was that tingling… No, I could not develop a thing for my boss.

I considered trying to talk him out of this, but his expression was as deadly serious as his brother’s ever was.

I could sense the flush crawling up my neck. My chest was certainly bright red already.

My top two buttons were already undone. I unbuttoned two more and pulled the sides apart, allowing the bow in the middle of my bra to peek through.

He nodded, and I quickly buttoned up.

“Is there anything else?” I asked.

“Yes. Are those pantyhose you’re wearing?”

I froze. Where was this going? Liquid need oozed down my middle toward my crotch. I thought about how long it had been since I’d had a man.

I pushed the thought away and pried my dry mouth open. “No. They’re thigh highs.”

“I’m not sure I can believe you, since you didn’t bother to comply with the other part of the dress code.” A twinkle made its way back into his eyes, though his lips didn’t curl into a smile.

I was suddenly sweltering in the office, even though the air conditioning was set at a constant seventy-two degrees by the elder Maddox.

Dixon stood and walked around the desk. “I’ll have to see for myself.”