The Recruit: Book One (30 page)

“Finally!”  The vampire shook his head at the couple as the back
door opened.  “Seriously, how difficult is it to kill one small dog?”

He stopped and gave them a look of false sympathy.  “Sorry
about your dog by the way.”

He turned, throwing his hands up, as his companion shuffled
into the room.  “It’s about time.  Did you get lost in the – “

He stopped.  “What the hell is wrong with you?  Why are you
– “

His companion gave a sudden, sharp gasp, his back bowing,
and then exploded.  The vampire threw his hands over his face, crying out and
falling back against the wall.  Ash and blood rained down and before the
vampire could stagger forward, she was standing in front of him, one hand
gripping the collar of his jacket and her other holding a blood-drenched sword
pointed directly over his heart.

“You.”  He whispered.

“Me.”  Her voice was a soft caress in the quiet.

“Please don’t – “

The woman plunged the sword through his breast.  He opened
his mouth, a glut of foul-smelling blood came pouring out of him and she
stepped back, yanking her sword free and turning away as he slid down the wall
and exploded.

The man and the woman, still bound to their chairs and their
faces and bodies streaked with ash and blood, looked silently at her for a
moment before the woman cleared her throat.

“Hello Hannah.”

“Hello mom.”

* * *

The Recruit (Book Two)
will be available at
www.amazon.com
in the summer of 2014.

Please enjoy a sample chapter of Elizabeth
Kelly
’s latest novel, “The Contract”.

THE CONTRACT

By Elizabeth Kelly

* * * *

Copyright 2014 Elizabeth Kelly

“It’s your turn, Mae.”

“My turn for what?”  I gave Ida, the HR
manager, an innocent look.

She rolled her eyes.  “Don’t even bother
pretending, Mae.  You know for what.”

I sighed heavily and stared out the window
of her disgustingly neat office.  I had been working for the law firm of Knight
and Associates for over a year and, so far, had managed to avoid being Liam
Knight’s personal assistant.  I knew my luck would run out sooner or later, but
I had hoped my perceived fragility would have netted me a few more months.

“You know how it works.  All the PA’s have
to take their turn helping Mr. Knight.”

“I know.”  I gave her what I hoped was a
trembling smile.  “It’s just, you know, he scares me.”

“He scares everyone.”  Ida replied. 
“Yesterday he had Roxie sobbing hysterically in her office.”

“Is that why it’s my turn?”  I asked.

Ida shrugged.  “Roxie’s been his PA for
nearly four months.  We need to switch it up before she quits on us.”

I groaned and sat back in my chair,
crossing my legs and straightening my skirt.  Knight and Associates was one of
the largest law firms in the city.  Liam Knight had started the company at the
age of twenty-five.  He had hired a legal assistant and a receptionist and went
to work.  Ten years later, thanks to a combination of hard work and a good head
for business, Liam Knight had propelled his company into a multi-million dollar
enterprise.  It boasted a staff of over fifteen lawyers, as well as multiple
legal assistants and other administrative staff. 

It wasn’t just the company that garnered a
lot of attention.  Liam Knight, with his utter ruthlessness in court and his
brooding good looks, had quickly become popular with the local media.  He spent
most of his weekends at various charity events or high-profile business
functions, always with a different woman at his side.

“I won’t try and tell you it’s not as bad
as you think because honestly, it’s probably worse.”  Ida shuffled the pile of
papers on her gleaming desk.  “You’ve been here long enough to know that Mr.
Knight is very demanding of his PA’s, and expects a great deal from them.”

“Yeah,” I muttered, “blood, sweat and
tears.”

Ida laughed.  “I’ve seen a lot of sweat and
tears from his PA’s over the years, but no blood yet.”

“Great.  I’ll probably be the first. 
Listen, Ida.  Have you ever thought of just hiring a permanent PA for Mr.
Knight?  There must be someone out there who can handle him on a regular
basis.”  I asked.

Ida shook her head.  “Don’t you think we’ve
tried that, Mae?  All that ends up happening is the PA quits after a few months
and we’re back to square one.  At least with the system we have now, we don’t
have to constantly retrain someone on Mr. Knight’s likes and dislikes.”

I sighed again.  A few years ago, Ida had,
in desperation, come up with the system we currently used.  Every few months,
the PA’s in the office were shuffled among the lawyers.  I frowned to myself. 
More accurately put – Mr. Knight’s PA was shuffled. 

Mr. Knight was nearly impossible to work
with and after a bevy of PA’s had quit, one after the other, Ida had come up
with the brilliant idea of using the PA’s who were currently employed.  Knowing
that they only had to put up with Liam Knight for a few hellish months before
Ida took pity on them and moved them, had stopped the steady flow of PA’s
quitting.

My ability to avoid being his PA had been
nothing more than a combination of luck and timing.  Two days after starting at
the firm, my fiancé had called off our engagement.  I had been devastated and
found it difficult to keep my emotions in check, even at my new job.  The fact
that I had spent the first few months randomly bursting into tears, had
convinced Ida I was too fragile to work for Mr. Knight.  She had pulled me out
of the pool of revolving PA’s, and assigned me to work for Kevin Thornton, one
of the more easy-going lawyers in the firm.

The truth of the matter was - I wasn’t
nearly as fragile and emotional as the office believed me to be.  But once I
found out how difficult Liam Knight was to work for, I’m not ashamed to admit I
worked the fragile and emotional bit for all it was worth.  Unfortunately it seemed
its usefulness had worn off, and now I had to find a new angle.

“Kevin’s not going to be happy.”  I said
warningly to Ida.  I had a great working relationship with Kevin, and I hoped
he might go to bat for me.

“Kevin already knows.”  Ida said breezily. 
“He’s upset but he understands how it works around here.”

“This is ridiculous.”  I grumbled.

“It’s only for a few months and then we’ll
move you to one of the other lawyers.”  Ida replied.  “It’s only fair, Mae. 
Some of the other PA’s have noticed and started complaining.”

“Fine, but when I’m crying hysterically in
the bathroom you’re going to feel terrible, Ida.”

She grinned.  “Oh, probably.  I usually
do.  But don’t think that crying hysterically in the bathroom on your first day
will get you moved, Mae.  You have to put in at least a few months.”

Before I could reply, there was a knock on
her door and the subject of our conversation walked into her office.  I
swallowed and looked quickly out the window.  I would die before I admitted
this to anyone in the office, but it wasn’t just his cruelty that made me
nervous about being his PA.  I’d had a crush on the aloof and distant Mr.
Knight for the past six months and I was growing increasingly aware of the fact
that no matter how cruel my boss was, I was more than a little interested in
sleeping with him.

I snorted to myself.  I was as far from
Liam Knight’s type as you could get.  The women who graced his arm at every
business function and charity event were always tall and willowy with blonde
hair and blue eyes.  They walked like models – hell, half of them
were
models – and they had perfect skin and oodles of money.

At 5’4”, I barely reached Liam Knight’s
chest and my dark hair and eyes were depressingly boring.  Even at 29 years
old, my skin still occasionally acted like it belonged to a teenager.  More
times than I cared to admit, I would wake to find a pimple had erupted on my
face in the night.

None of that really mattered though.  Even
if I had been tall and blonde, there was still the small matter of my weight. 
Or, more accurately put, the large matter.  I was, as my mother liked to gently
point out, pleasantly plump.  Truth be told, I didn’t mind all that much.  My
breasts might be large but they were perky enough, and the roundness of my
belly could usually be hidden with some control-top underwear.  Besides, as my
friend Allie liked to tell me, there were plenty of chubby chasers out there. 

Of course if there were, I certainly wasn’t
finding any of them.  I hadn’t gone on a single date since my dickhead fiancé
Neil, had broken my heart.  For months there had been nothing between my legs
but my own hand, and my trusty vibrator “Paul”.  That was probably the reason I
got so hot and bothered whenever I was close to my boss.

Or, maybe it was because the man was a
walking, talking, and extremely lickable sex god.  He was at least a foot
taller than me, and the broadness of his shoulders sent me into very
uncharacteristic swoonville.  Although I had never actually seen him in
anything but a tailored business suit, I was positive that under those clothes
of his was an abdomen of steel and a chest that rippled with muscles.  His dark
hair and cold grey eyes were an odd combination, but they worked for him. 

I risked a glance at him and shivered when
I realized those cold grey eyes were staring right at me.  He stared
unblinkingly at me until I blushed and looked away.

“Hello, Mr. Knight.”  Ida smiled at him. 
“What can I do for you?”

“You need to do something about Ms.
Falkner.  She keeps crying in her office.  It’s impossible to get any work done
with her blubbering away in there.”  He snapped.

“Actually,” Ida stood, and after a moment’s
hesitation I did the same, “this is good timing.  I was just telling Mae that
she’s going to be your new PA, starting tomorrow.”

As Mr. Knight looked me up and down, from
my dark hair piled in an unflattering bun on the top of my head to my cheap
black heels, I forced myself to smile at him.

“I’m looking forward to working with you,
Mr. Knight.”  I lied brightly.

“No.”

“I’m sorry?”  I frowned at him.

He turned to Ida.  “I’m not working with
her.”

“Why not?”  Ida looked as flabbergasted as
I did.

“She’s too emotional.  She’ll never survive
being my PA and you know it, Ida.”  Mr. Knight said grimly.

“She’ll be fine.”  Ida glared at him.

I was always impressed by the way Ida
handled Mr. Knight.  Maybe it was just her personality, or maybe it was because
she had been his very first assistant when he started the business, but she
never seemed to have a problem telling him what for.

“I said no, Ida.”  He gave her a warning
look that Ida pointedly ignored.

“Well, that’s too bad Liam, because at this
moment she’s the only PA in the pool that’s willing to work with you.  The
others all need a break.”

He snorted disdainfully.  “Maybe we should
look at hiring PA’s who understand this is business and nothing personal.”

His gaze slid to me as he spoke, and the
contempt in his eyes brought my usually well-hidden temper busting out.

“I can assure you, Mr. Knight,” I said
icily, “that I will not cry in my office.”  I figured since my emotional
fragility was no longer working as a barrier to being his assistant, I might as
well drop the act.

He cocked his eyebrow at me arrogantly, and
I drew myself up to my full height as he strode across the room to stand
directly in front of me.  “We both know that’s not true, Ms. Temple.”

He stared down at my flushed and angry face
and when his gaze fell on my breasts hidden beneath my cheap suit jacket, I
poked him in the chest.

“Up here, Mr. Knight.”  I said quietly, and
he had the good grace to flush a little.  I rolled my eyes.  The man was
standing in the office of the HR manager for God’s sake, and he had just
blatantly ogled my tits.  I ignored the little rush of heat that tingled
through my girl bits and glared at him.

“I think you’ll find I’m more than capable
of handling your insane work load demands.”

“Insane?”  He looked back at Ida who
shrugged.

“Yes, insane.”  I replied.  “Some of us
have a social life.”

I wasn’t one of those people, but the man
standing in front of me currently trying to burn a hole in my skull with his
gaze didn’t need to know that.

He stared at me silently for a few minutes
and then sighed harshly.  “Fine, Ms. Temple.  But the first time I catch you
crying in your office, you’re reassigned to another lawyer.  Do I make myself
clear?”

“Perfectly.”  I retorted.

He turned and left the office and Ida gave
me a look of admiration.  “You might not just get eaten alive after all, Mae.”

* * *

The Contract
will be available at
www.amazon.com
in May of 2014.