Undersold (5 page)

“Really? I didn’t hear about that.”

“It’s all over the office.” She rolled a little closer. “Want to know what I think?”

My heart started to hammer in my chest. “Sure, what do you think?”

Her face took on a mischievous look. “I think he’s in there banging a bunch of different girls. I heard he’s a huge flirt.”

“Linda!” I said, and my face turned red. Linda giggled at my reaction.

“Oh, come on, new girl. We all know he’s hot as hell. Got to blow off a little steam every once in awhile, you know?”

I wasn’t offended by her joke at all. I felt pretty close to her, and I assumed she felt the same way about me if she was already willing to joke about our boss having sex with strange girls. It was just that I wanted to be one of those girls. Actually, I wanted to be the only girl. Was I feeling jealous? I was feeling jealous. It was crazy, but I found myself wanting to be taken by this man, anywhere he chose, anytime he wanted.

“He is pretty hot,” I offered.

Linda grinned. “That’s the spirit. But in all seriousness, he should be working with you more. It’s weird that he hasn’t even stopped by.”

“Think it’s anything to do with my project?” I felt a little uneasy.

“Oh no, no, don’t worry.” Linda’s face got serious, and she held up her hands. “You’re totally fine. You’re way too new to have done something to make him hide away in his office yet. Maybe one day, though.”

I laughed. “A girl can dream.” If she only knew what I’d already done, I think I’d be the center of gossip in this office for weeks.

“Anyway, I doubt it’s girls he has back in there. Or boys, for that matter. I hear he hardly dates, if he dates at all.”

“Has he ever had a serious relationship?”

Linda shrugged. “I think so, awhile ago. But I’m not really sure. It’s all office gossip, and I don’t really buy this one.”

“What is it?” I felt nosy, but I couldn’t help it. I wasn’t usually the type to get into gossip, but I felt hungry for anything about him. And Linda seemed particularly interested in talking about his personal life.

“Well,” Linda said, leaning in conspiratorially. “I heard him and Janice, his assistant, had a long relationship a few years ago. They ended and stayed friends, but there’s a tension between them, like nothing was resolved.”

That made me pause. Janice and Shane? She was tall and gorgeous and fashionable, everything I wasn’t. But them dating, that made a lot of sense to me. Why was she still working as his assistant if they were exes? That wasn’t exactly normal. It didn’t make a lot of sense, but Shane was a mystery to me. Everything about him felt like a secret, and I was desperate to learn the truth.

“But you can never know what’s real with this stuff,” Linda finished, leaning back.

“How true do you think it is?” I was hoping not at all.

“Not very, if I’m honest. But they are pretty close, so who knows.”

I hadn’t noticed that, but then again, I’d only been around a short time.

“Brother and sister close?” I asked.

“Well, look who’s interested in the office rumor mill all of a sudden,” Linda said, teasing.

“I’m not interested, I mean, I’m just curious.” I felt myself backpedaling, embarrassed. I didn’t want her to know how intensely interested I really was. Like, willing to torture her for more information, if I had to. Okay, maybe I wasn’t that interested, but I couldn’t stop thinking about him. He was like a black hole I kept tumbling down deep into.

“Oh it’s fine, relax. I’d say brother and sister, but what do I know.”

“Where do these rumors come from, anyway?”

“Who knows? He’s so private about his personal life. People probably make stuff up to fill in all the blanks. And that man, he has a lot of blanks.”

“Sorry to shoot all these questions at you,” I said. It was strange trying to find out about a man through one of his employees, especially a man I had sent such detailed, personal messages to. I felt like I was cobbling him together from second hand sources, trying to paint a picture without paint. It was frustrating, but it was all I had.

“No problem. Ask anytime. I love talking about Mr. Mysterious Boss.” Linda gave me another grin and waggled her eyebrows, then rolled back to her side of the partition.

The only real question I had, the only thought that dominated my mind since I started working at Adstringo was: Why did he avoid me? I couldn’t help but think it was because he realized the mistake he made. He got to know me outside of the business world, and maybe he didn’t like what he saw. Maybe he’s reconsidering everything, and regrets signing those contracts.

I’m afraid he thinks I’m a silly girl who texts dirty messages for fun, and that I don’t belong at a company like Adstringo. Or, worse, he thinks I’m a liability, and might tell people about our relationship. I would never betray his trust like that, but I could understand that fear.

Before I fell into a total meltdown tailspin, an email popped into my Inbox. It was an invitation to a meeting from Janice. Curious, I opened it.

It read,
Tomorrow, 9am, Mr. Green’s office.
That was it, no explanation, nothing. I hit accept, and let it send the automatic reply message. I leaned back in my chair, excitement flowing back into me. I was finally getting a chance to see him again. Even if it was just a business meeting, I’d get to see the way his body moves, the ripple of his muscles as he reaches across a table, maybe brush our fingertips together by mistake. My mind wandered back to the dirty things he said, like how he wanted to push his face between my legs and breathe me, lick me until I couldn’t stand anymore.

I shook my head to snap out of it again. I couldn’t let myself have these fantasies, not when he made it clear what our relationship would be. I sat up straight and forced myself to get back to work, but my mind kept wandering back to memories of his intense gaze.

T
he next morning couldn’t come fast enough. I obsessed over what I’d wear for hours, and finally settled on a navy blue blouse, a tight, three-quarter length sleeve cardigan, and the tight grey skirt that makes my ass look fantastic. Heels, plus a light jacket for traveling, finished off the outfit.

During the commute to the office, my mind was racing. Would we talk about what happened again, or are we going to be strictly professional? I thought he would want to move on, but I couldn’t be sure. I should have still been a little hurt that he had lied to me, but I realized that I wasn’t upset about it at all. If anything, I was jealous that he might be back on the dating app, pretending to be someone he wasn’t, and flirting with regular girls like me. I had checked the app the day after our meeting, but his profile was gone. He could have deleted it and started fresh, for all I knew.

Lately, I felt like I was forgetting where I came from. Shane Green, billionaire and genius, didn’t want a relationship with me. And why would he? I was a nobody. The only good thing I’d ever done was write a decent app, and even that needed help from someone like him to make it into the big time. I was just another normal girl trying to get through the day.

I got into the office early and waited with nervous excitement until nine. When it was time, I carried my bag with my laptop and a few notes down a series of halls and into the area where Shane’s office was. Janice sat outside of his door at her desk.

“Good morning, Janice,” I said.

“Good morning Amy. He’s expecting you.” She picked up a phone and waited a few moments. She said something quietly into the receiver, waited a second, then hung it up. “He said to come right in.”

I smiled, thanked her, and pushed the door to his office open.

Shane Green was sitting behind his desk, his nose lost in the screen of his laptop. I walked in a few paces before stopping.

“Hello Mr. Green, you asked to see me?”

He looked up. “Hi Amy. Take a seat over there and set up, I’ll be with you in a second.”

He gestured toward a table on the left side of his office, next to a wall of glass windows. The room was simple: one desk on the wall opposite the door, a couch against the right wall, and a table with four chairs against the left. There was some art hung up, and books lining the shelves, plus a few filing cabinets, but for the most part is lacked anything personal. I was surprised at how simple it was, actually. It was still the largest office in the building, but it wasn’t huge or lavish by any means. It felt almost Spartan in comparison to what I imagined it would be like. It only deepened the mystery that was Shane Green. Nothing about it gave anything away.

I could feel his presence as I set up at the table and started pulling up my recent work. Even though he wasn’t paying attention to me, he still seemed to control the room. It was hard not to stare over at him. We were twenty feet apart at most, and I could hear his breathing in the otherwise silent space. I had to remind myself to keep looking at my laptop.

He wore a light blue shirt and a pale red skinny tie, and his jacket was hung up on a rack near the door. His sleeves were pushed halfway up and I could see the muscles in his forearms flex as he typed. I fantasized about those arms, wrapped around my hips, pulling me closer. His face was perfectly groomed and beautiful, and I realized how plain I must look in comparison.

We passed a few minutes in silence. I wasn’t sure what was happening here, but I was going to keep it professional no matter what. I knew he needed his space and his privacy, and that was the best thing I could do for now.

I glanced up and caught him staring at me. I could feel myself turn a little red. He didn’t look away, and smiled his endearing half grin.

“Ready to get started?” he asked, and stood up.

“Whenever you are, Mr. Green.”

He walked around the desk, picked up the chair to my right, and placed it down beside me.

“Alright, show me what you’re working on.”

He leaned in toward the screen as I started running through the app. I had redesigned the main intro screen in the last few days, and I started with that.

“I thought this screen needed something to pull people in, something a little more exciting.”

He nodded. I could feel how close he was, maybe six inches separating our shoulders. We spent the next few minutes like this, me running through the app’s changes and the proposed future tweaks, and him mostly listening. He remained close in order to see the screen, and made small sounds of assent. It was distracting, his full lips so close to me, but I promised myself I’d remain professional, and I was trying.

We got to a new part of the app where students can look through the available tutors. He suddenly reached out and stopped my hand on the trackpad from scrolling further. I looked down at his fingers touching mine and felt a tingle again run down my arm. He said something, but I missed it.

There was a short pause, then he looked at our hands. He pulled his back quickly.

“Sorry about that,” he said.

“It’s okay, I didn’t mind.”

“I can get lost in this sometimes. I forget myself.”

I shifted my weight toward him. “It’s totally fine. I didn’t mind.”

He smiled at me with his half grin. “I have to admit, it’s distracting working with you.”

“And why is that?” My heart started to race.

“You know why, Amy.” He paused and moved away. “I shouldn’t be talking about this. It’s inappropriate for the relationship we agreed on.”

I didn’t know what to say. I could tell he was conflicted, but there was something about him that pulled me in and wouldn’t let me go. I could feel the block of self-doubt beginning to loosen again, and the confidence I’d felt at the bar and in the messages start to come back. Whatever it was between us, it made me feel good, and strong. I reached out and put my hand on his knee.

“I know you need your privacy. I understand that,” I said, looking him in the eye.

He looked back at me, and I could feel something change. He leaned closer to me and put his hand on top of mine.

“I do need my privacy. It’s extremely important to me that I remain as far from the spotlight as possible. I want to live a normal life, and it’s something I have been working toward for a long time.”

I could feel his fingers squeeze mine.

“I understand. I would never want to jeopardize that.”

“I’m a man who gets what he wants, Amy. I’ve worked hard and excelled at everything I’ve done in order to build the life I have now.”

I nodded quietly, my mouth half open, breathing in his closeness.

“I have rules that need to be followed, otherwise I lose some of the control that I’ve worked for.”

“What kind of rules?” I gaped, not sure what he meant.

He leaned forward, half out of his chair, and pressed his right hand on my cheek. I could feel his fingers in my hair. He filled the space between us, and pressed his lips against mine. It felt like ice and fire, his soft lips against my own, and our mouths parted slowly. As his gentle tongue touched mine, he took a deep breath through his nose and pushed himself harder against me. He let go of my knee and took my face in his hands, kissing me fully and deeply, in a way I’d never been kissed before. I could taste him and wanted more, I wanted every inch of him pressed up against me.

He ran his right hand down my face, over my breasts, and down toward the hem of my dress. I could feel my skin tingle and linger wherever he touched, and I was more excited than I thought possible. His whole body was becoming a part of mine as he kissed me and ran his hand up my thigh. His fingers slipped further up my leg and he felt the wetness there, gently rubbing my mound.

He pulled away from the kiss and put his lips against my ear. “I can show you what I mean.” I desperately wanted him to do that.

“I’ve been thinking about this for days,” I moaned. His hot breath made me squirm, and I ran my hands through his hair as waves of pleasure ran up my body. He rubbed gently but firmly, in smooth, practiced motions. I let out small sounds of pleasure, but tried to stay quiet.

“Is this what you wanted?” he said into my ear.

“Yes, I wanted this so badly, Mr. Green.”

“I’m going to make you mine, Amy.” His fingers alternated pressure and softness and continued to work my moistness.