Unleashing the Receptionist: ...the Receptionist, Book 3 (6 page)

I lost track of the body parts he was listing as I soared into a full-body orgasm that included even my weighted nipples. I grunted like a primitive beast against his knee. I probably left spots of drool. When the spasms finally died down, he rolled me off his lap so I curled on the floor between his legs. He opened his pants and brought out an industrial-strength erection.

“I need your beautiful, greedy mouth on me, Dana. Suck me off, hard and fast.”

Eagerly I took him into my mouth. The aftershocks of my orgasm still radiated through me, and I felt grateful and at peace with the world. I gave him long, hard sucks the way I knew he liked it—the way I’d seen Simon do it. I figured men knew what to do with their own equipment, right?

I ran my tongue from the root of his cock to the tip, gave some love to the hard ridge around its head, the lovely soft veins, then settled in for some deep suction. He tasted wonderful to me, alive and springy in my mouth. I was so caught up I almost didn’t hear the knock on Ethan’s office door.

Ethan stilled me with a hand on my head. “Yes?”

“Mr. Cowell, it’s Peter Standish. I have some questions.”

“Come in.” He tried to tug his cock free, but I kept my mouth tight around it. Payback is a bitch.

I heard the door click open. Tentative footsteps followed. I pictured Peter Standish standing there all nerdy and shy, daunted by the presence of the mighty Ethan Cowell. What would he think if he knew that I was kneeling under Ethan’s desk with his cock in my mouth? I smiled around the massive pole of flesh, then swirled my tongue across its head. It pulsed in response and I tasted a drop of salt.

Ethan’s hand fisted in my hair. I could tell he was torn between wanting to pull me off him and wanting to get off. I made the choice harder by stretching his balls. Ethan loved it when we played with his balls. A deep mossy smell surrounded me, with my head buried between his thighs. It felt like I was burrowing into the very core of this man.

“Some items are missing,” Standish said. “In the file of the Caper, Inc. deal. Without those items, the numbers don’t add up.”

“The Caper deal, huh?” Ethan’s voice was strained, probably because I’d taken his balls into my mouth while I wrapped my fist around his cock. “A discrepancy?”

“A big one, I’m afraid. I have two sets of figures, one from Margo Lang and one from Simon Dirk. They disagree by several hundred thousand dollars.”

“We had a computer crash while that deal was bl—wrapping up.”

Was he about to say, “blowing up”?

I snorted.

“What was that?” Standish asked.

“What?”

“I heard an odd sound.”

“Missed it. Anyway, I’ll do a thorough hunt for my notes on the Caper project. End of the day all right?”

“Sure.” He hesitated. “Have you seen Miss Arthur?”

“Not lately.”

I sucked hard, my cheeks going hollow with the effort. Ethan gave a sudden groan.

“Are you all right?”

“Brilliant. A little under the weather, but nothing an early night can’t cure.”

“Ah. Well, I just wanted to say that, well, Miss Arthur’s been very helpful. She’s an asset to your organization.”

“Well, don’t tell her that, she’ll get a big head.”

Again I snorted, nearly choking on Ethan’s shaft.

“Did you hear…?”

“No,” said Ethan grimly. “Excuse me, please. I must get back to work now.”

Footsteps padded across the carpet and the door snicked shut. Ethan clamped my head between his hands and thrust savagely into the depths of my throat. I scrambled to handle him, to contain the warm salty liquid welling in my mouth. I sucked him dry, loving the taste of him, the way his cock went soft and vulnerable after its thunderous eruption.

After I’d swallowed every delicious drop, I let his cock fall from my lips. Ethan still hadn’t moved. He sprawled in his chair in a kind of stupor. I crawled out from under the desk. He opened one ice-blue eye.

“You little devil,” he rasped tenderly.

I merely smiled. “I’m going to get back before Standish freaks out.”

He put out a lazy hand. “Come here.”

I went to him. When I was close enough, he reached out a hand and clasped the back of my thigh, tugging me up tight against him. His big warm hand splayed against my flesh, nudging the curve of my ass.

“Be good,” he said, with a squeeze. His eyes glittered at me from under half-closed lids.

“Or what?” I teased.

“Or else.” He raised one wicked eyebrow. I shivered. Ethan’s “elses” were something else.

“Sure, boss.”

Chapter Six

I made a quick trip to the bathroom to straighten out my appearance. Then I peeped into Standish’s little cubbyhole, where he sat like a little squirrel in a nest. His head bounced up with flattering eagerness.

“Dana! I was wondering where you were.”

“Bathroom break,” I said breezily.

He went pink, which amused the hell out of me. What kind of man is embarrassed by mention of a pee break?

“You know, last night I had a hard time sleeping,” I said, with a slow, sensuous stretch.

He mumbled something, utterly riveted.

“I kept worrying that I’m not doing enough to help you out. I’m more than just a receptionist, you know.”

“Oh, I know!”

I paused for a startled second. He didn’t know…
that
, did he?

“I mean, you
could
be more. You’re obviously very bright and kind and hardworking and smart and…beautiful…” He trailed off. “I’m sorry, that was extremely inappropriate.”

I nearly let out a telltale snort. Inappropriate? He had no idea. He also had no idea how endearing he was.

“Not at all, I think it’s sweet. I really appreciate it. But what I mean is, Mr. Cowell and Mr. Dirk often assign me other duties to perform, which I welcome gladly. If you would like to do the same, I’d be more than happy to be of assistance. For instance, those files look familiar. Are they by any chance from the Caper deal?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact.” His baby face clouded. “I’m running into some difficulties.”

“Maybe I could help. I wasn’t here back then, so maybe some fresh eyes would be useful.” I tilted my head and fluttered my eyelashes. “Maybe I’ll see something the others missed. It would mean so much to me if I could help you and my bosses. I want to prove to them that they can trust me with more responsibilities, you know?”

I put out my hand, as if he’d already agreed to give me the file. He looked down at the folder, then up at me, then back down again. He rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. Then he gave in and picked it up off the desk.

“Here you are. Let me know if you figure anything out that might help me.”

“Of course.”

I took the manila folder. It had information about Margo Lang in it, that’s why I wanted it. Margo Lang and Simon had worked on that project, and I wanted to know everything about it.

“Miss Arthur.”

“You really should call me Dana, you know,” I said absently. Now that I had the file I wanted to squirrel myself away with it.

“Dana. I’m not here to make trouble for you all, you know.”

I took a look at his anxiously widened eyes. “I never thought you were.”

“Well, some people, you know, they don’t like accountants. Not everyone makes tea for us and makes sure our ties are straight.”

“Standish, let me tell you something. When I look at you I don’t see an accountant.”

He blinked. “What do you see?”

I saw someone who really needed to get laid, but probably hardly ever did and most likely had some kind of quirky means of self-pleasure. But I couldn’t tell him that.

“I see someone who needs his tie straightened.” I winked and leaned over the desk to tweak his tie. “Loosened would be even better, but I’m not going to push it.” I was careful not to touch him while I messed with his tie. I knew he wouldn’t want that. Whatever floated his boat, it wasn’t physical contact from a woman.

I felt his eyes on me as I left the room. He might not want my touch, but he sure liked to look.

And that gave me an idea.

I spent the afternoon secretly poring over the Caper file. It held all the emails, all the deal memos, all the invoices and bills paid. And it told me a lot. The numbers didn’t add up at all. To my inexperienced eye, it sure looked like our firm had cheated Caper. That kind of cheating had a name, I remembered vaguely from the newspapers. Embezzlement. Except the firm had a different name back then. Lang & Associates.

I learned more stuff. Margo Lang was a horrible boss. She was nasty, she kept changing her mind, then blamed Simon if he went the direction she originally wanted rather than the one she changed her mind to, as if he should have read her mind and known what she would eventually decide to do. Simon stood up to her and she hated that. The undertone in every single email was her frustration that she couldn’t control Simon.

Then everything changed. Simon suggested bringing in Ethan as a consultant. Margo’s emails to the two of them instantly got all fake-nice. She agreed to everything, acted as if Ethan was a genius and gave Simon a big raise. On the surface, Simon and Ethan bought into her act, but I could tell they were just playing along. Then Margo started making little insinuations in her emails about things like “our late-night discussion” and “fabulous brainstorming session”.

I knew what that meant. Ethan was taking command of the situation. And then the emails stopped. It looked as if a big chunk of the file had been removed. The last emails involved only Simon and Ethan. There was one reference to the resignation of Margo Lang, but no one seemed broken up about it, especially not the Caper exec. I took note of the dates, scanned the figures once again, and hid the file deep in my desk.

When Simon left for the day, he stopped at my desk and gave me a long, probing look. It was ridiculously hard for me to hide anything from either of my two bosses; curse their eagle eyes. “What are you up to?” he asked.

“Nothing!” I decided to go on the offensive. “How long has this firm belonged to you and Ethan?”

He did a double take. “Trying to change the subject, are you?”

How could he know me that well? “I’m just curious. You know me.”

“And you know me. You know I don’t like to talk about anything in the past. Is this about Margo Lang?” He said the name with disgust.

“Not really. It’s more about you and Ethan and all the secrets you two keep.” I paused, biting my lip. “And how it makes me feel left out.”

Involuntarily, his hand curved around my cheek. His scar twitched as he smiled crookedly down at me, then spoke in a husky voice. “Do you need us to give you another demonstration of how much you’re
not
left out?”

I rubbed my cheek on his hand like a kitten. I often felt like a spoiled, sensual cat around Simon and Ethan. “I just love you both so much. I want to know everything about you.”

“Listen to me, my darling. Some things you might be better off not knowing. You know what they say about curiosity killing the cat.”

I jerked my head away from his hand. Maybe not the best moment to feel like a cat. The knowledge of the file in my desk burned at my conscience.

“Anything you want to share with me?” he asked once more, gently. I shook my head. If he wasn’t going to tell me what I wanted to know, I wasn’t going to spill either. I watched him leave, feeling a shadow fall over my perfect happiness with my job. My lovers didn’t trust me enough to tell me the things I wanted to know.

And now I was hiding something from my sexy, beloved Simon. What was wrong with me?

Why couldn’t I forget about Margo, listen to his advice and stop wondering about things that probably didn’t matter anymore?

Except that it did matter. Not just to me. Margo wasn’t only in the past. She was in the present too. She was causing all kinds of trouble. It was her fault that Standish was here doing his audit. She was a pain in the ass and she’d flicked my nipple. No way was I letting it go.

I wanted to prove myself to Simon and Ethan. If I could help with the IRS crisis, they’d have to trust me, wouldn’t they?

After everyone had left, I placed the Caper file back on Standish’s pile of papers. I left him a Post-It note that said, “Sorry I’m not any help so far. But I’ll keep looking. Never give up, never surrender!” I figured a Trekkie-ish reference would make him smile.

Then I did something bad.

I may have mentioned that Cowell & Dirk is big on video cameras. Both Simon and Ethan enjoy taping things or watching on the closed-circuit video system. They have cameras stashed everywhere. We have all kinds of kinky fun with those cameras. Once I’d made the cute delivery guy go down on me while…but that’s another story.

Back to the cameras. One of them happened to be aimed at my desk in the lobby. But the remote monitor, which usually sat in Simon’s office, had just been sent back from the repair shop. Instead of returning it to its regular position, I took it into Standish’s little room. I positioned the camera so my desk was in full view and turned it on.