His email said to be in his office at precisely 4:30pm and here I was counting the minutes, daring myself to walk in five minutes late.
I looked down at my computer clock. 4:27pm.
I looked up the email, although there was nothing else to read. He'd written Be in my office at 4:30pm. Don't be late in the subject line and left the body blank. Only his signature was there:
Jackson Stone
CEO
Stone-Black Corporation
The clock ticked over another minute and I felt the desire to leap up and rush into his office. Although, according to Ms. Green, the phantom HR manager who I barely saw, being early was just as bad as being late for Mr. Stone.
Since our encounter last week, I hadn't seen Mr. Stone even once. I received all my work tasks via email from Ms. Green and the phone on my desk never rang. I was sure Mr. Stone was in his office but the doors were so well sound-proofed I couldn't hear anything through them. I even came into the office one morning an hour early and found them closed, as though he was already hard at work. The only proof I saw he even existed was his BMW sitting in the car park.
It seemed that after he'd bent me over his desk and spanked me and then used my vibrating bullet on me that he really did mean it was never going to happen again. A wild plan had formed in my mind to push him a little - forget to add Sir when I was answering him, take down the notes poorly - but I couldn't do that if I never saw him.
Maybe this is what he did - let himself cross the line with his assistants and then just freeze them out. They'd either quit or if they didn't, they'd be fired for some made-up reason. No matter my forbidden desire for Mr. Stone, I was determined not to be fired. I only had surface access to Stone-Black's files and I wasn't stupid enough to start snooping only a week in but I knew eventually I'd be given some access.
Then to see the look on his face when I revealed a hidden crime to the press. I imagined his face - angry at me, furious at being tricked and felt my body respond. The spanking that would follow-
I screamed as I felt a hand on my shoulder and jumped up from my chair. Mr. Stone was standing behind me. I didn't need to imagine his furious face because I was looking right at it. He was dressed in shades of black and grey with a red pocket square sticking out of his suit pocket. I caught his eye and then looked down at my computer clock.
4:31pm.
"Come with me," he said, his voice almost a whisper. He stalked off back to his office, the heavy mahogany door swinging shut behind him.
"Stay calm stay calm stay calm," I repeated to myself as I gathered my yellow legal pad and pen.
With my heart pounding, half hoping he'd punish me for being a minute late, half hoping he would pull me close, I adjusted my pencil skirt and walked through the doors.
*
Mr. Stone was sitting behind his giant black desk, looking at a computer monitor that was set to the side. He waved his hand at the chair at that sat in front of the desk. I sat down, noticing that hidden panel hiding the golden bar was so well disguised as to be invisible.
He turned the screen to face me. It was showing stock prices of various companies and graphs showing lines going up and down. Stone-Black was on there, currently in a dip but slowing rising.
"What do you see?" he asked.
I let out a held breath and read down the list of names on the side of the screen. So I wasn't going to be spanked for being a minute late?
There were tech companies, mining companies and a few food companies. Some of their prices were going up, others down and others were pretty much a straight line. What was he asking me about this for? I'm no idiot but the stock market wasn't my thing. Every time I thought about stocks I got an image of Scrooge McDuck laughing as he swam in his money bin. The closest I ever got to real money was that time I found ten bucks on the bus.
"Stone-Black dipped but is coming back up, Sir."
"And what about this?" He pointed to a dip in another company's line. There was no name, just the acronym SBU.
I looked at the timeline across the bottom. "Um ... three months ago they had a similar dip and then came out of it?"
He frowned at me.
"Sir," I added quickly, my pulse speeding up.
"That was them admitting their solar technology wasn't as good as they claimed and this is us admitting the same thing but for different reasons."
He turned the screen back around to face him and then looked at me. Even just sitting there in his chair he was young and vital. He was strong and he moved silently.
I looked down at my notepad and readied my pen, as though I was about to write something down. I couldn't hold his gaze. Already I felt my sex heating against his chair just being near him. I felt like his scent infused the room and saturated me.
"Look at me, Delilah," he said, his voice commanding.
I swallowed and looked up into his eyes.
"You're going to be given access to our systems as though you were me. Do you understand? I need you to follow my instructions precisely and without error. You are going to have access to a lot of sensitive material and I need to know that I can trust you. Can I trust you?"
I suddenly felt see-through as though I was made of glass. My blouse was sheer white and I knew he could see my black bra beneath it. I wished I was covered in a suit of armor rather than having him sitting in front of me asking I he could trust me.
"You can trust me, Sir." I said, feeling the lie slip over my tongue like it was made of lead.
"Good. Now go back to your desk, I have work to do."
With a wave of his hand he dismissed me and started typing on his keyboard. I stood up and walked out. In the polished surfaces in his office on the way out there were about six different views of Mr. Stone. In none of them did he look up at me walking out. With a sinking heart I left his office, the heavy doors closing behind me.
I sat down at my desk and saw I had two new emails. The first was from Ms. Green telling me my security access had been upgraded to the top level. I now had access to every single part of Stone-Black. It came with three pages of various warnings about misusing information which I skipped over. I saw that it had been sent at 4:32pm. They'd upgraded my security rating before Mr. Stone had even asked me if I could be trusted?
The second email was from Mr. Stone and the timestamp showed it arrived a minute ago. There was no subject line.
You will hand-write "I will not be late" one hundred times and bring it to me at 5pm. Do not be late.
Lines? He had given me lines?
Even as I felt myself rebelling - maybe I'll make a spelling mistake. Maybe I'll take it in at 5:01 - I pulled out my yellow pad and started writing.