“I’m not going to have any fun with you.” She whispered back and I moved back and laughed.
“So you admit you’re smart-mouthed, like to role-play and like to talkback?”
“I admit I’m smart, yes.” She made a face at me and pushed past me. “Now are we going to work or do you want to sit around and play games all day? I mean I know you’re the boss's son, but I would assume you need to actually get something done, right?”
“Very funny.” I turned around and walked back to my desk. She was correct of course. There was a lot of work to do and I had to start somewhere. “We have a business trip next week. We’ll be flying to New York.”
“We?” She frowned and I could see her nibbling her lower lip. I moved my eyes away from her mouth as she was starting to turn me on.
“Yes, we. You’re my assistant, right?”
“Yeah, but assistants don’t normally—”
“Stop right there.” I brushed my hands. “I don’t care what normally happens.”
“I’m not a normal type of guy.”
“That I knew.” Her eyes looked me over from head to toe and she smirked at me as her eyes met mine again. I smiled inwardly at her little digs. Did she really think she was getting the better of me?
“I’m glad you knew that.” I smiled softly. “That will make life easier for the both of us. I’ve got a meeting with my dad in half an hour. When I’m gone, I want you to go through the Martin Corp files. We’re meeting with the CEO Rob Martin next week. I want you find out everything there is to know about Martin Corp.” I frowned as I noticed she wasn’t writing anything down. “Are you getting all of this?”
“Rob Martin has been the CEO of Martin Corp for three years. He took over the company from his father. His father took it over from his father. They are all undergraduates of Harvard and they all went to Yale Law School. Martin Corp had a net loss of $500 million last year and they sold five TV stations they owned in the Midwest.” She paused and looked at me. “Rob doesn’t want to sell the family company, but they are looking at a net loss of another $300 million this year and they have seen shares drop by 75%. Investors and shareholders are leaving in flocks and if something doesn’t change they will have to liquidate and disband. He wants a partner to keep them in business. Partners want to get rid of the Martin name.” She stopped and looked up at me. “Shall I continue?”
“You know your stuff.” I nodded slowly, impressed at her business acumen.
“That’s why I was nearly hired for your job.” She said dryly.
“Touché.” I bit my lower lip. “Well if you play your hands right, you might still get a chance to advance.”
“Uh huh.” She mumbled and I could tell she wanted to say something else.
“What is it?” I asked her softly. “I can tell that you’re dying to say something else.”
“I don’t care about advancing if it means I have to sleep with the bosses son.”
“Sleeping with me wouldn’t get you an advancement.” I smiled. “It might get you a couple of days in late to work, but that’s about it.”
“Ooh, now the option looks so much more attractive.” She rolled her eyes.
“Though, I wouldn’t advise you sleep with me.” I grinned. “I wouldn’t want things to be awkward between us when I stopped sleeping with you.”
“When you stopped sleeping with me?” Her jaw dropped. “Really?”
“Really?” I grinned. “I’m not the sort of guy that has relationships and you seem like the clingy type. Things could get awkward if we had sex. I wouldn’t want you trying to poison me.”
“You’d be so lucky.” She shook her head furiously. I watched her slinky long hair covering her face and imagined it trailing along my chest as she bent down to suck me.
“I think I would.” I mumbled to myself and sat down. Maybe I needed to stop with the game. It was fun, but I didn’t want to start turning myself on. I didn’t want it to get to the point where I was no longer teasing her. Teasing was fun. And bedding her would be even more fun, but I knew sex with my assistant would be the worst thing I could do. And I wasn’t lying when I said that I thought things would be terribly awkward once our weekend of fun was done. Hannah, for all her bravado, seemed the sort of girl to take things very personally. There was no way I wanted to hit it and quit it with a girl that worked for me. That just equaled trouble.
“What else did you need me to do for you, Mr. Maxwell?” Hannah’s voice was prim and proper as she put her hair up in a bun. She looked like a sexy librarian with the hair up, but I didn’t tell her that the look turned me on even more than her hair being down did. When it was up, I could imagine being the one to pull out the pins and turn her from dowdy to sexy.
“I want you to figure out Rob Martin’s likes and dislikes. Find out what’s going on in his personal life. Find out if it’s always been his goal to take-over the company or if he’s doing it out of a sense of duty.” I paused as I watched her scribbling quickly in her notepad. “I want to know what he does in his spare time. I want to know which companies he cares about the most. I want to know the breakdown in revenue for each region and for each company. I want to know if he’s going to be willing to sell Martin Corp for $500 Million and walk away from the company.”
“You’re going to make a bid.” Her eyes narrowed as she stared at me. “I thought...”
“I know what you thought.” I grinned. “You thought I didn’t know anything. You think I took this job knowing nothing. I might be the boss’s son. And I might have taken the job you’re also qualified for, but I do know my shit, Hannah Will. My dad’s a successful businessman. Trust me, he never would have hired me if I didn’t know my shit.” I watched Hannah’s shoulders deflate slightly as she realized that I wasn’t a complete dumbass. I’m sure she realized now that as chagrined as she had been, she couldn’t say that someone not as qualified as her had taken the job. I knew my shit. I’d grown up with a dad obsessed with business. I’d been reading the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal since I was a kid. Yeah, I preferred surfing and I liked playing my guitar, but that didn’t mean I didn’t know my bonds from my stocks. That didn’t mean I didn’t look at the Nasdaq and the Dow every morning with my coffee. I didn’t want to pull rank on Hannah and I truly liked her, but she had to realize and remember who was boss. At the end of the day, I needed her to do a job and I needed her to respect me.