Page 15

R ichard blinked, almost at a loss for words. Almost.

Congratulations? For what? Dropping a bollock? Making a complete ass of himself? “What?”

Scarlet’s head titled, her eyes dancing and gleeful, both bunny and lioness. “Congratulations. You passed the test.”

“Test? What test?” he demanded, incredulous.

“For the position of Financial Analyst,” she said simply. “You applied for the position before being assigned to this department."

“Yeah, I remember.”

How could he not?

It had been one of the few jobs he’d actually wanted. Similar seniority to his old role, but with a better salary and abundant career opportunities.

Or so the ad in the job centre had led him to believe.

What they’d offered was a polite brush off, followed by a role that was a major move down, with less pay, more hours and with every opportunity he could ever have hoped for, to kiss ass and get his ass kicked. However, with little Alex on the way, what choice had he had? It wasn’t like he was getting headhunted by the Bank of England, after all.

“But that was over a year ago.” he added, only just able to keep the bite from his tone.

Scarlet nodded, leaning back in her chair. The bunny had taken flight now. She was all lioness here, a queen in the heart of her territory, mistress of all she surveyed, and those hot, ice-blue eyes watched him keenly over her steepled fingers. "As you are aware, the role requires certain aptitudes. Qualities that are difficult to assess on a CV and in an interview. So, potential applicants are allocated a minor role in the company, then in due course, we allocate them a manufactured account to evaluate their performance.”

“Hence Prometheus,” Richard nodded, comprehension blooming. “Who seduced Zeus with plates of bones wrapped in fats to give offal covered beef to humanity.”

“Then stole fire, and was punished by being chained to a rock for the great eagle to feast upon his liver each morning,” Scarlet added.

“Very symbolic. So, if the candidate lacks the predisposition for the role, they’re fed to the eagles?”

“More or less,” she purred with a subtle tilt of her head that made Richard wonder if she wasn’t entirely joking. “But, congratulations Dick, you’ve passed the test. Though I have to say, you were taking your sweet time about it. I was about ready to chuck your ass to the curb on general principle. Rather ironic, really. If you hadn't, you certainly would have been after I read what you sent me earlier. How long did all this take you?”

"About a day and a half," he shrugged, feeling very warm in his suit. It all made so much sense and was now so obvious. God, how could he have been so stupid? Russian organised crime. He must have lost his mind.

"Extraordinary. That's half as long as the last guy who passed the test.” Shifting back in her chair and crossing her legs, revealing a lot of her soft, golden thigh, Scarlet brought a hand up to toy with a lock of her hair, studying him with renewed interest. “I must say, though, yours is certainly the most unique report yet. And all from the financial data you were provided and a bit of digging. Just extraordinary. You certainly have a vivid imagination for an accountant, Dick. You’ve been reading too much Andy McNab. Still, I might just have to commission you to write a novel.” The corner of her mouth curled in the ghost of a smile and the tip of her pink tongue swept over her plump, juicy, pink lips. “A seedy little erotic thriller. Perhaps about a businessman caught cheating on his wife.”

She let the suggestion hang there, but held his gaze just long enough for Richard’s blood to turn to ice in his veins.

Shit.

Was it just a coincidence? Or did Scarlet know something? No, that was crazy. How could she? He was being silly. She couldn’t know anything about him and Rebecca, unless- the sound he’d heard outside the office door. Someone moving around behind the door… Had it been Scarlet? Fuck.

“So… I’m getting promoted?”

Smooth, very smooth, asshole.

Whatever Scarlet had been expecting, that wasn’t it.

She laughed.

She actually laughed. A soft, kittenish, and unmistakably feminine sound, as fair to the ears as she was lovely to behold. It was the first time Richard had ever heard it and despite his rather precarious situation; it surprised him to find the sweet melody suited her and made her appear more delicate.

He almost forgot what a bitch she could be.

Almost.

“Not quite,” she chuckled. “Consider it more of a lateral move. You’ll remain in my department, but within a role more suited to your talents. Get a nice little pay raise, your own private office three doors down the hall. Just what you need, a little privacy… ”

“Is that a prerequisite for the position?” Richard asked, his throat growing tighter.

She giggled softly. “In your case, Dick, I think it’s indispensable.”

She was baiting him, daring him to ask the question. Both manoeuvring and mocking him. Just another game. Fuck, fuck, fuck!

“If you say so,” he said simply, sidestepping her trap by the skin of his teeth. Great, now all I’ve got to do is get the hell out of Dodge.

He just needed an excuse.

Just one polite reason to-

Scarlet’s lips twisted wryly. “Very good Dick, but as much as I’d like to sit here engaging in a bit of witty repartee with you, I don’t have the time and you don’t have the wit, so why don’t we just cut through the bullshit.” She removed her glasses and placed them on the desk before turning her computer monitor around for him to see.

Oh shit…

A video file was open on the screen, paused for the moment, but Richard recognised it as the feed from a security camera, a camera from his office. The camera that just so happened to be looking down at his cubicle. Where he was sitting… with Rebecca in his lap.

How could he have forgotten about the damn cameras?

Scarlet clicked her tongue, the lioness’s merciless blue eyes fixed on him. “Now Dick, I don’t care what my staff get up to on their lunch. Frankly, if you’re off the clock, I don’t give a fuck… so long as it takes place off company property.”

She clicked her mouse, and the feed started replaying the scene. There was no sound. The audio was redirected to a pair of buds in the jack, but then again, he didn’t need it. Every moment was still seared in his memory. Him and Rebecca making out in his chair. The call from Alice. Rebecca hiding. His wife stripping on the screen while the girl sucked him off… Richard hated to admit it, but even under her scrutiny, the memory of it was making him hard.

“Off the record, I have to say, I’m impressed. I thought the pair of you were just a boring, straight-laced, middle-class couple. The sort that argues twice a week and fucks once every leap year. I certainly never would have guessed Alice had it in her. I mean, I always suspected she had a bit of a wild streak in her. All these stuck-up bitches do, but to actually Skype her man at work to have phone sex! Bravo. And as for you...” She shut down the media player and twisted the monitor back around to face her, her eyes bright and mocking. “Well, look at the cock on you. And while a hot bit of young ass blows you under the desk, as well. Never knew you had it in you, either. I thought that only happened in bad porn.”

With a shudder of self-loathing at his treacherous loins, Richard met Scarlet’s gaze. “And I never guessed you were such a voyeur. What do you do, sit around here watching us all day?”

“No, not unless I have due cause to check the feeds. And when I spotted your little friend going into one of my departments, then strutting by my office door with that 'cat that got the canary grin' on her face nearly half an hour later… Well, it wouldn’t be very professional of me to just turn a blind eye. Who knew what she was getting up to, or rather, who was getting into her…” she chuckled mockingly. “You should thank me, Dick. If someone in security had seen this. Well, who knows how far it could have gone...” She let the point hang there to let his imagination do the rest.

“Is that what happened to you? Did one guard catch you having a bonk and run off to tell Daddy?” The words were out before he could stop himself.

"Excuse me?"

Shit, now he'd done it.

He gritted his teeth against another outburst and tried to look contrite. "Never mind, I-"

"No, go on, Dick ,” she said, raising a hand to stop him, her voice suddenly very still and deadly serious. “So just what are they all saying about me? I’m the office slut? A hot fuck in the closet, or a quick suck in the bog type of girl? Or is it the old chestnut, daddy issues? Sleeping with all of Daddy’s little minions because old Walrus Face wouldn’t buy her a pony for her tenth birthday?”

“No one said anything about a pony,” he admitted, resisting the urge to look away as a chill crept up his spine and he had the unmistakable feeling of shrinking into his chair.

“Then you’ve missed some of the more lurid variations,” she continued. “No Dick, I’ve never been caught on camera. I’m not a slut, Dick. I just like sex and I’m not afraid to show it. Or enjoy it.”

Richard wondered for a moment if he should ask, but she spoke with such resolve, he couldn't help himself. “And the stories about you with Tommy Cox, and Mike from Legal.”

She shrugged. “They’re true. I found them attractive and thought they would be a decent lay. So, I offered, and they took me up on it. They were under no obligations.”

Richard was aghast. “They lost their jobs and their wives divorced them because of your affairs. Doesn’t that bother you?”

“No!” Scarlet held up a dismissive hand. “Their wives divorced them because they found out their husbands were getting some on the side and didn’t like it. And I sacked them because they thought banging the boss’s daughter whenever she needed to take the edge off gave them the right to talk shit about the company. Clearly, they were wrong. If their wives had sucked their dicks once in a while, maybe they would've gone home to them instead of meeting me in the Travel Lodge. So, what do I have to feel guilty about Dick? I’m not married and I’m not lying to my spouse to bang a hot bit of ass.” Her smile dropped, and her expression was suddenly as cold and hard as a diamond. “It’s rather hypocritical, don’t you think, questioning my morals when you’re the one getting a little lip service from your bit on the side?”

She had it right, of course. And whatever else his faults might have been, Richard wasn’t so great a fool as to try lying to himself.

What right did he have to criticize her?

They may have both been indiscreet, but she was single and a free agent.

He, on the other hand, was a married man.

“Yes. You’re right, I’m sorry, and it won’t happen again,” he capitulated and finally looked down at his feet, running a hand through his hair. Scarlet nodded, accepting his apologies, but it wasn’t enough. He felt the need to say more, to explain himself, or perhaps just get it all out in the open. “This all started Friday night, after we got home from the party, and I let myself get carried away in the moment. I made a mistake and now- “

“Why?”

“What?” The question was so unexpected, he rounded on her without thinking.

Yet Scarlet merely looked back, nonplussed. Then, as if he hadn’t spoken at all, she calmly pulled open one of her drawers and pulled out a Tupperware tub and a small packet of chocolate dip. “Do you mind? I had lunch but seem to have missed dessert, courtesy of your little show.”

He nodded, but without waiting for his response, Scarlet had already stood up and was walking around the desk to sit on the edge directly in front of his chair. She crossed her legs. “So, why was it a mistake?”

“You have got to be joking,” he stammered, all too aware of their closeness as the floral scent of her perfume fogged his senses.

“Am I laughing?” she asked, undoing the container's fastenings before carefully balancing the lid on her knee like a plate, then tipping a variable punnet of fat red strawberries out onto it. “If I were joking, Dick, you would be in stitches. Now, this girl-”

“Rebecca,” he cut in, perhaps a little too forcefully, but he didn’t care. He didn’t want her referring to Rebecca in that way. Like she was insignificant.

Scarlet shot him a withering, almost pitying look as she ripped the lid off of her dip. “Okay, Rebecca . You’ve known her a while?”

Richard nodded. “Yeah, she lives in our building. She’s our babysitter.”

She exaggerated rolling her eyes, then plucked up one strawberry and plunged it in the dip. “I never would have guessed, still I suppose a cliché is a cliché for a reason. Okay, so you’ve known her a while. And she comes from a troubled home?”

“Y-you could say that,” he trailed off for a second as he watched her bring the fruit up to her lips, her tongue sliding out to taste the chocolate. He forced himself to look away, his eyes quickly fixing on a point out the window. There wasn’t anywhere else he could look. Her perch on the desk caused the already tiny skirt to rise higher while placing the swells of her breasts just at his eye level…

“Abuse?”

“Something like that. Her old man isn’t much cop with men, but he can be a hard one with women.”

“You sound like you don’t like him.” She bit down on the berry and moaned a low sound of pleasure that seemed to thrum down his spine, all the way to the base of his cock.

“We’ve had words.” Actually, Richard had caught the little bastard threatening to beat his daughter black and blue after he’d had a few too many, and she’d come home late. So he had explained, from one father to another, that that wasn’t any way to treat his daughter.

The guy had gotten the message, at least for a while. However, the sounds from their flat had been growing more and more volatile recently. No doubt he would have to reiterate that little lesson before long.

She popped the rest of the strawberry into her mouth, her tongue skimming out to lick up the single roll of sweetness that was creeping down her chin. “And I suppose her mum just sits there and lets him bully her around?”

“No, her mother buggered off and left her alone with the short-arse, went to live with a boyfriend in Leeds or Bradford or somewhere up North. Rebecca hasn’t seen or spoken to her in years.”

She pondered that for a moment, before picking up another strawberry and nibbling it thoughtfully. “No other family?”

“None,” he swallowed, his mouth and throat growing dry as the office seemed to grow hotter by the second.

“Then I don’t see the problem,” she declared, then slowly took the whole berry into her mouth. “She seems smart enough, enough not to think you’ll leave your wife for her. She’s just confused, as most girls her age are. I dare say you’re the strongest male role model she’s ever had and can’t quite work out how she feels about you. Give her a few weeks to work it out, and she’ll meet some boy her own age. But if you tell her it was all a mistake, you’ll probably just do more harm than good for the poor girl.”

“And what about Alice?”

“Do you love her?” She forewent the fruit entirely this time and dipped her finger into the dip.

“Of course I do, but-”

“Would you leave her for this girl or try to lead either of them on?” Scarlet put her chocolate-covered finger into her mouth and sucked it clean with a long slow draw that had Richard’s fists clenching in his lap.

“Never,” he rasped, his gaze focusing on those pouting pink lips, and for the briefest moment, he wondered what that lush mouth would look like wrapped around his dick.

She shrugged. “Then? What about her? Sex isn’t a luxury, Dick. It’s a necessity. The body needs it like it needs food and water. If you’re not getting any at home, then you need to look for it elsewhere. If having a little on the side gets the urge out of your system, just enjoy the adventure while it lasts.”

“Spoken like a woman who's never been married.”

Scarlet smirked triumphantly and gestured at him with another plump strawberry. “And who never wants to. Humans aren’t monogamous by nature, so why should I be? Just because society demands it? I’m a girl with needs who doesn’t like to be tied down, and matrimony is one big leash, Dick, especially when there are so many men out there I haven’t tried yet.”

She dunked half the berry into the dip. “Besides, what good would telling her do? Cheaters say being honest is the right thing to do, but all they really want is to make themselves feel better about fucking up. She’ll be happier not knowing.”

“It’s still wrong.”

“How so? Is it wrong to grab a bite on the way home even though your wife is cooking dinner? No. You’re hungry, so you eat. Why should sex be any different?” Her eyes then sparkled with mischief as she nibbled along the chocolate. “If it bothers you so much, just grow a pair and tell her. Or try for a three-way?”

“Now I know you’re joking.”

“Why not? It would certainly solve all your problems,” she teased, stretching out one long graceful leg, the toe of her high-heel shoe, white to match her dress, brushing along his thigh and down his leg. “And it’s certainly not adultery if your wife’s banging her, too.”

“Except Alice would cut my balls off and wear them as earrings,” he breathed, forcing himself to look into her eyes, refusing to look down, all too aware of the unobstructed view she was offering him. Sharon Stone couldn’t have done it better herself.

Holding his gaze, she leant forward until they were almost nose to nose. “I don’t know. From what I saw, she’s definitely full of surprises. It’s always the up-tight ones that you’ve got to watch.”

“Drop it Scarlet,” he warned, gritting his teeth, his dick hard and tight and impossible to ignore.

“Am I right, Dick? I am, aren’t I? Yeah, I bet she turns into a little nympho the moment her hair comes down.” She dropped the plate of strawberries on the desk and reached out to finger his tie.

“Scarlet… I’m warning you." His throat was tight around the words as his heart pounded in his ears. Shit, he needed to get out of here. She was too close, he couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe, her damn perfume was fogging his head.

Damnit, why did she have to smell so good…

“Mmm… you know you’re cute when you’re flustered.” She closed the gap, sliding off the desk and onto his lap so the crotch of her dress pressed against his cock through his trousers. “Come on, Dick, don’t be greedy. She’ll love going down on your little babysitter while you fuck her like a bitch in hea-”

Her taunt died in a surprised gasp as he seized a fistful of her blonde hair.