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I amused myself by trying to guess what was up his butt now. Maybe when he picked up his coffee this morning, he didn’t manage to make the barista cry? Or maybe he hadn’t come across any babies or puppies to kick on his way into work?
Whatever his problem was, I decided it was a good thing. A man like that deserved to be frustrated. If the universe wanted Dominic to be annoyed, I’d happily do everything in my power to help, too.
6
DOMINIC
My newly renovated office was more my style. I had the beige drywall clad with posters replaced with wood paneling. A floor-to-ceiling bookshelf now dominated the wall across from my desk and the floors were covered with thick, Turkish rugs. I ran my palms across my new desk, appreciating the smooth, unblemished finish.
Then I sighed as the damn image floated into my mind again. I pictured her from a few days ago sitting at her work station with her skirt zipper down just enough to show me that she was wearing a red thong. I’d already taken more of a look at her tight ass as she’d walked off toward her desk than I should have. The vision of the thong completed my mental image, and all I’d been able to do the rest of the day was fight off the fantasies of teaching her who was really the boss here by having her come to me on her knees. I pictured that tight ass of hers from above with nothing but the thong on as she looked up at me with her big eyes.
I’d cup her chin and lift her eyes to mine. Then I’d tell her to do her fucking job and suck her boss’ cock.
But even in my ill-advised fantasy, I couldn’t completely picture her as submissive. In my fantasy she talked back all the way to my cock, even stopping to bust my balls before sliding me deep between her lips.
I pinched my nose and brought a fist down on the desk.
Focus, asshole.This wasn’t like me. I wasn’t the creep who developed sexual fantasies about his employees. Why should I be? I could’ve gone out into the city as soon as I got off work and found a woman at a bar if I wanted to get my dick wet.
Sex was fine, but it didn’t drive me. It never had. I was driven by the desire to prove myself. I wanted to make this business hum like a well-oiled machine, no matter what my dad thought. If not for the scandal three years back, he would’ve happily kept me from any real responsibility within his company. He needed me for now, and I knew this was likely my only chance to grab my share of power. Eventually, I’d be out from under his thumb, andThe Squawkerwas my only ticket to that future.
But deep down, I knew why Darcy was distracting me, and that was exactly why this was pissing me off so badly.
Darcy was haunting my thoughts because she wasn’t anything like those women I’d find at the bars. They were always like sheep–ready to come with me after nothing but a crook of my finger. Darcy was the prey that didn’t just run from me, she would lie in wait and try to ambush me. She’d fight back.
Apparently that was all it took. Something about her rebellious glares and the amused curve of her lips had me obsessed. All I wanted was to have my hands on her–to show her how I could wipe that smug look from her face with nothing but a single fingertip. I wanted to feel that control over her. I wanted to hear what it sounded like when she moaned.
And I also knew I could never do anything of the sort. Darcy McClain was my employee, and my fantasies needed to stay in my head. Better yet, I needed to find a way to be rid of them–to be rid ofher. I wasn’t sure what would happen if I had to endure her presence for much longer, so I needed her gone. I needed her to slip up.
My office door opened and Tristan came in. His dirty blonde hair was trimmed short on the sides and pushed back on top in a single swoop. “Good news,” he said. “We’re going to be on more shelves. I worked out a deal with New York’s biggest grocer last night. I’ve got meetings with a handful of big bloggers today.The Squawker–is that name permanent? Should we try to change it to something less ridiculous?”
“Maybe,” I said with a sigh.
“Anyway, I’ve got people working on a web structure. We’ll have a subscription service and I’m recruiting bloggers to put the word out when it goes live.”
“Good,” I said. “Did Marcus work out that thing with the newsstands?”
“What thing?”
“They heard about the acquisition and they’re trying to stage a sort of boycott.”
Tristan nodded knowingly. “Because of the thing withIntelliCorp?”
“Yeah,” I said. Three years ago, my father acquired a tech startup just as they were about to launch their big funding push to investors. He had inside knowledge of the product and also knew the men and women they were going to pitch to. So he went to the investors, confirmed the money to be made, and made an aggressive buyout. One of the founders ofIntelliCorpdidn’t want to sell, even for the seemingly ludicrous price, but his two partners folded. My father took over the company and fired everyone as quickly as he could. It all made him a fortune, but the press caught wind whenIntelliCorp’s original founder told his story.
Basically, the Lockwood family was on public notice. We’d gone from relative invisibility with the average person to public enemy number one in many circles. It was partly why my father decided to put me on this project. On the one hand, I hadn’t been in any kind of public spotlight before taking this job, which meant I was far less hated. On the other hand, I’d studied journalism and business at Columbia and this sort of project was right in my wheelhouse.
Either way, I knew I had to be more careful than he’d been withIntelliCorp. That meant I couldn’t just fire employees at a whim. They had to give cause that would stand up under scrutiny. Of course I planned to fire most of the staff here eventually, but I needed to wait for them to slip up so I could bring my own people in.
I was confident it wouldn’t be an issue. The only problem was it meant I couldn’t fire Darcy unless she gave me a reason. All it would take would be one employee blabbing to bring the scrutiny of the media on me.
Tristan’s phone chimed and he looked down at it. “Gotta take this.”
“Yeah, go ahead,” I said, waving him off. Tristan had set up a temporary office outside the building with Marcus. I was working on plans to buy out the first floor. The old historic building was more apartment complex than business center, and part of me wanted to scrap the whole place entirely to move somewhere more professional. But if I could buy out the tenants on the first floor, I could convert it into some proper offices for myself and my team. It would also mean Darcy wouldn’t be prancing around right outside my window all day.
I shifted in my seat, annoyed. Of course I could just close the blinds on my windows and door. But I didn’t have the willpower. I also wanted to watch her to see if she was going to get off task, but the damn woman had lived up to her promise ever since that first morning when I moved Steve away from her workspace. She came into work, went to her computer, and grinded all fucking day.
I had the hairball from I.T. install monitoring software on all of the computers in the office so I could view employee’s screens at any time. I let them all know they could be watched and made a habit of flicking through their screens, hoping to find someone egregiously off-task so I could start building a case to fire them. Most of them occasionally got on social media, or in one case, worked on a weird ass blog about how to train your cat to flush the toilet for you–not how to use the toilet on their own, simply how to get them to flush after you’d done your business.
