Page 23 of Undeniably Corrupt
Vander: You’re not going to answer me.
Me: You don’t answer my questions.
Vander: When do you plan to give your notice at the club?
I shift in my chair and use both hands to type, liking this fancy new phone way better than my ancient flip one.
Me: Who said I was?
Vander: I expected that was implied.
Me: It’s not in my contract that I quit the club.
Vander: Isn’t that sort of the point of you earning more money?
Me: Depends on who you ask. I already told you I liked the red outfit.
Vander: Then feel free to wear it in your office as long as your door is closed and no one else sees you in it. I’d hate for anyone else to suffer the way I did the other night.
That makes me smile.
Me: I hope you haven’t been in too much pain. Or maybe I do. Here’s an article that might help.
I do a quick Google search and attach an article about blue balls.
Me: To get rid of it, it says you should pee, exercise, or do deep breathing techniques. You can also distract yourself with things like reading or sleep.
Vander: Yeah, I can verify that’s not how I got rid of that condition. I had a very strong and vivid memory of a woman in hot red pleather handing me my ass to help me along.
I can’t help but blush as I read that. I don’t want to think about him doing…thatto thoughts of me. I can’t think of Vander that way. Not again.
Vander: See you at the meeting, Angel.
And that’s when I get an idea.
A bad idea, I’ll admit, but an idea all the same. Maybe there are girls in this world who would be grateful to Vander and his strange attention, but I won’t be one of them. I pull my lipstick out of my purse and head out the door of my office to find thebathroom. I smear the same red lipstick on my lips that I wore the other night, pull my long, blonde hair up into a tight ponytail, and find my way down to the conference room after making a pit stop to grab my new phone and laptop from my office.
By the time I enter the room, it’s filled minus Vander Moore. I smile and introduce myself to everyone.
“You started fast,” John, a marketing director, notes with a small chuckle. “When I put in for a new assistant, it took three months before I could get one hired and in the door with all the security they had to go through.”
“Oh, well, Vander already knows me, sorta, so maybe that’s why it was easier,” I say as I take a seat and set down my new, fancy devices.
“He knows you? Sorta?” Alesha, the COO, picks up.
“Yes. We were high school sweethearts, I guess you could say, but it’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other until recently.”
The room falls silent, and I nervously twirl my bracelet. “You knew Vander in high school?” Jeremy, whose job I already forgot, is blinking at me with owl eyes.
“Um. Yes.” Heat prickles the back of my neck. Was I not supposed to say that? I have no idea how corporations work. Are histories and personal lives not discussed? Maybe that was in my contract as a no-go area, and I missed it. Oops.
“Wow. You’ll have to tell us all about him back then.” Alesha is looking at me with different eyes now. The eyes of a woman sizing up the competition, and I wonder if she and Vander have a thing going. She’s a vampire. One I can spot a mile out. And now she doesn’t like me. Awesome start.
Vander and Champagne walk in, cutting off the conversation. He doesn’t say anything. His face is glued to his phone until he reaches the table and takes a seat, and I take a moment to study him like this. He’s not wearing a suit or even nice dressclothes the way everyone else is. He’s wearing a dark gray button-down with the sleeves pushed up to the elbows, revealing his colorfully inked arms, and black slacks with his blond hair all over his forehead and his face full of stubble that’s turning into a beard. He’s also wearing glasses with clear, gray frames, and damn.
It’s a look he pulls off well.
The sinfully hot bad boy CEO. He’s the smartest man in the room, and everyone knows it. He’s also the most enigmatic, which naturally draws you to him.
