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“I was surprised to get your message. I thought your mind was already made up. Thank you so much for this opportunity, sir.”
“Don’t thank me yet. I’m not hiring you for the position you were interviewing for,” he said.
“You’re not?” she asked as a wave of panic spread through her.
He shook his head. “I have a special job in mind for you,” he said, leaning forward with his hands steepled together in front of him.
“What did you have in mind?” she asked with no small amount of skepticism.
“It’s a new position I’ve been thinking of creating for a while now. It will be somewhat of a personal assistant position. You would report directly to me and no one else. I’ll pay you more than what you would have made in the other position, because you’ll be working on some special projects I have in the works.”
Farren thought for a moment. Did she want to be a personal assistant to Rogan Rayner? On one hand, the title was a little off-putting. She hadn’t busted her hump through college just to be someone’s assistant.
“If you think you can cut it,” he added.
On the other hand, it was Rogan Rayner. It was the company she’d dreamed of working for since high school. If she turned this down now, she may never have another chance. And she could definitely cut it, all right.
“What do you mean by, ‘reporting directly to you and no one else’?” she asked.
“I mean that there are other men here in management positions who may feel they are entitled to your assistance, and that will not be the case,” he answered, clipped.
“I see.” She made a mental note and tucked that away to delve into later. “And these special projects I’ll be working on, are they technical or… secretarial?”
Rayner thought for a moment before answering.
“Both.”
Farren nodded with understanding and pursed her lips.
“Okay… Where do I begin?” she said finally, accepting the offer. She didn’t know what the pay would be, but even at the amount for the other position, she would have accepted. Either way, it was more than she was making now, having just ended her college work-study program, and having student loans she would have to start paying back soon. Gramma’s social security income only went so far.
Rayner smiled and stood from his chair. “Follow me,” he instructed, and walked over to a door connecting his office to the one beside it.
As she fell in line behind him, she couldn’t help but notice the muscle in the broad expanse of his back, and how the outline of a large tattoo was just barely visible through the fabric of his white, button-down shirt. Not to mention the way his butt filled out the soft, thin material of his dress pants.
When she caught herself checking out his ass, she snapped her gaze back up to eye level and admonished herself for allowing her thoughts to travel down such an inappropriate path. Mr. Rayner was officially her boss now! She couldn’t be ogling his goods. She had to admit they were pretty good, though, even for an older man. It wasn’t like he was that old, and he could definitely fill out a pair of pants much better than any of the guys her age.
“This will be your office. I want you to keep the blinds closed at all times. You have until the end of the week to acquaint yourself with our software programs. Beginning next Monday, if you’re still here and think you can handle the work, I’ll have you start working on a special project I’ve been asked to develop.”
He walked behind her desk and pulled her chair out, motioning for her to sit. She crossed the short distance and sat, feeling the hair at the nape of her neck standing on end at Mr. Rayner’s proximity. He leaned over her to move the wireless mouse, and doing so brought the computer screen in front of her to life.
“I’ll help you set up a login, and then I’ll leave you to learn the system on your own while I get back to my work for the time being. If you have any questions about anything, I want you to ask Rita, and no one else.”
There he went again, Farren thought. She wasn’t sure why he was so concerned about her not talking to any of the other people there in the office. She couldn’t even open her blinds to see out into the hallway? She knew he didn’t want her to be a distraction, but good grief, what did he think she was going to do?
Once he got her set up, he left back to his own office, and Farren got right to it, getting acquainted with the software on their system. She made some notes of questions she would ask Rita later on that day if she ran into her.
By lunch time, she could feel her stomach growling, so she got up and went to the door that connected her office with Mr. Rayner’s. She rapped lightly on it and twisted the knob to enter. Once it was open about half way, she noticed a woman in Mr. Rayner’s office.
The woman had fiery waves of red hair, and she wore a form-fitting, black jump-suit with layers of fine jewelry on her neck, wrists, and fingers. She was standing in front of Mr. Rayner behind his desk, in front of him where he sat in his chair. She had her derriere leaned against the top of his desk as she leaned slightly forward, and though they weren’t in a compromising position right in that moment, it was obvious they either had been or were about to be.
Embarrassed, Farren started pulling the door closed when both Mr. Rayner’s and the woman’s head turned to see her in the doorway. Farren’s face flushed with heat, and she gave them an apologetic wave. “So sorry,” she said, and pulled the door closed.
She took the other exit from her office that led into the hallway, and when she opened the door, she saw two men in dress shirts and slacks rather than the black polos the other employees wore. She thought they must be some type of management, and Mr. Rayner’s unspoken warning about the management he had on staff had her on alert. Was he protecting them from her, or was he protecting her from them?
Their heads had turned in her direction when she opened the door, and their conversation halted as she emerged. She gave them a timid, polite smile and a nod, but didn’t speak to them. The way that Mr. Rayner had said she would answer to him and no one else made her wonder what kinds of things they might ask her to do.
She imagined herself being buried under mountains of paper they wanted her to file, alphabetize, or shred for them. Then her thoughts turned in another direction, and she imagined herself having to hack into their ex-wives’ bank accounts or their girlfriends’ bedroom security cameras.
