Twelve Days - The Beginning Read online

  Elise read and re-read the e-mail several times whist waiting for the words to sink in.

  Just who did this arrogant prick think he was? HIS?? She didn’t even know him, had spoken only a handful of words to him and had certainly not given out any vibes to suggest she was in any way interested. What an egotistical maniac! There were still nine unopened messages sitting in her in box and, before she could change her mind, she checked the ‘select all’ box and deleted them. She had no interest whatsoever in anything that man had to say. She could barely remember what he looked like, for Christ’s sake. What the hell was wrong with everyone today?

  Glancing up, she noticed that Olivia had finally made it to the office; albeit late and looking a little rough around the edges. The devious side of her nature had a small grin at seeing the usually perfect Olivia looking a bit under the weather and decided that it served her right. Hang on! Where did that thought come from? So she left with Vaughn, what the hell does that matter? God!

  Frustrated at the direction of her thoughts and telling herself that it was definitely a result of lack of caffeine, she headed to the kitchen to get herself a coffee. Celeste bounded in after her and Elise pasted a neutral smile on her face as she concocted a story about watching midnight TV with Dale for a while before settling down to bed. Celeste was great and definitely her best female friend but there were just some things that she couldn’t share and until she knew where her head was at with her marriage, she needed to keep everyone else out of it.

  Returning to her desk clutching the much-needed nectar, she wasn’t surprised to see another e-mail sitting in her inbox. Deciding that she would have to open this one, if only to respond and get rid of him, she settled down and pressed the read button.

  Fri Dec. 14th 10.01am

  Where have you gone? I thought we were talking?

  Just saw you walking to the kitchen. You really are beautiful and no, that’s not a line.

  Please let me take you to lunch.

  Yours, Vaughn.

  PS. Can I have your phone no.?

  OMG! This was ridiculous! He clearly wasn’t going to go away; either that or he was totally thick headed and just didn’t get that she wasn’t interested. Her phone no.? Yeah right, like that was ever going to happen!? She turned to Stephen.

  “Erm, Stephen?” He twisted to face her, “Any idea where the new guy’s desk is? You know, Vaughn isn’t it? The one you were with last night?” She knew it was around here somewhere if he had seen her walk to the kitchen.

  “Babe,” Stephen spoke patiently as if addressing a child, “Vaughn doesn’t have a desk, he has an office. It’s just around the corner on the left, opposite the kitchen.”

  Opposite the kitchen? Well, that would explain how he had seen her but why did he have an office? Wasn’t he just a – what was it? – ‘off site rep’, whatever that meant. It didn’t sound terribly senior and certainly not a position requiring an office in her opinion. They were reserved for management usually; she knew this because Cole had his own office on the other side of the building. Whatever. If he had an office, so be it. In fact in some ways, that would be preferable. Less likely to cause a scene when she stormed round there and bawled him out.

  Pushing her chair back, she got up intent on heading to find Vaughn and his ‘office’.

  “Babe! Where are you going? Are you going to do any work today or what?”

  She resisted – just - flipping the finger at Stephen as she headed off in the direction of the kitchen again. Work? She’d give him work. She worked harder than most of the staff on her floor, generally staying later than most, although that was largely to put off the inevitable waiting for her at home. If his stupid new ‘best mate’ had not been e-mailing her, then she would be sat at her desk right now. Men, men, men, men, men!

  Rounding the corner, she frowned as she noticed the new office construction for the first time and wondered how she had missed it on her previous visit to the kitchen. Their office block was modern, fully-glazed and open plan. The accounting firm had grown to such a level that they now occupied both the ground and first floors; the upper floor largely housing the Directors and Secretaries although Cole maintained his office on the ground floor because he said that he wanted to be ‘with the troops’. The ground floor was divided into blocks of desks with each block dealing with a section of the alphabet based on surnames and Company names. Herself, Stephen and Olivia had somehow ended up with P through to Z, which made for some interesting phone calls and correspondence.

  Despite having worked for Andrews & Andrews for five years, she had not arrived with any Accounting experience so had started with general admin duties. After a while, Cole had recommended her for the company training programme which she had taken and loved, surprising herself that she had the knack for figures and book balancing. When she had first got married, Dale had dealt with all the financial things; she had just spent the money and if they didn’t have any, she didn’t spend any – simple. So to find out some years later that she could actually do figure work was a revelation. This revelation coincided with Dale’s emotional ‘meltdown’, meaning that she now took care of the finances at home too.

  Stephen had come on-board three years ago and the fact that she was just slightly senior to him irked him, she knew. Olivia had been the new addition a couple of weeks ago straight from University and, despite Elise’s misgivings about the girl; she was shaping up to be good at her job.

  In the last few months, Elise had been trusted to attend conferences, along with some of the other senior staff; to sell their wares, so to speak. They were targeted with talking to large companies to persuade them to relinquish their in-house accounting methods and hand responsibility over to Andrews & Andrews. Whilst this was more of a sales role, Elise found that it came to her relatively easily and she was really starting to enjoy the conferences. On the last one which she had only returned from only a couple of days ago, she had managed to snag a large, up-and-coming multi-national who had an excellent on-site team but were looking for a company to manage their private pensions and investment accounts. This had earned her high praise from Mr Andrews Snr. and she and Cole had been absolutely thrilled. Elise had yet to tell Dale; he had not been sober long enough since she had been back. The conferences were where she had really got to know Celeste who worked on the A – F team on the other side of the office. They had clicked straight away and had fast become good friends.

  The new office construction she had failed to notice before was actually a large stud wall area, opposite the kitchen and adjacent to the G – K team. Thinking about it now, she vaguely remembered the builders doing some work in that area but had taken no notice of it.

  Approaching the uniform light brown door, she was momentarily taken aback by the nameplate adorning it:

  MR VAUGHN GRANGER

  MANAGING DIRECTOR – OFF SITE ACCOUNTS

  Managing Director? Wait a minute. Stephen had called him a ‘rep’, mentioning nothing about his MD status and why the hell had Cole not said anything last night? And what on earth was ‘off site accounts’ when it was at home? None of this made any sense. Surely if Mr Vaughn Granger was a Managing Director, someone somewhere would have mentioned it. And more to the point, what was a Managing Director doing getting raging drunk at the Christmas party and leaving to destination God-knows-where with the newest member of staff? And even more to the point, what the hell was he doing e-mailing her?!

  Realising that she would get none of these answers standing outside of his door and staring inanely at his nameplate, she knocked brusquely and waited. It didn’t matter who he was; MD or no MD, he had no right to e-mail her the way he had, no right to call her beautiful and absolutely NO right, to ask for her phone number.

  “Come.” the tone was short and to the point. The small office unit had been constructed in such a way that the window faced the kitchen and the outer office, not the door, so unless he stood behind the peephole, he would have no way of knowing who was
outside.

  Elise opened the door tentatively, unsure what to expect. As she entered and locked eyes with Mr Vaughn Granger for only the second time ever, she was aware of two things; one, coming to his office had been a huge mistake and two; she was totally and utterly screwed.

  He was stunning; no, he was beyond stunning. How had she not noticed this last night? The dark hair and dark dark eyes she remembered, but everything else was a complete revelation. He sat expectantly at his desk waiting for her to speak as she remained mute and her eyes drank him in. Definitely mid-thirties, he had a rugged face and clean-shaven jaw which emphasised his infinitely kissable mouth. Currently, it was curled up at the corners in a half smile, making her want to rub her thumb along the line and change its shape. His hair was slightly longer than she remembered last night, curling suggestively at the nape of his neck and he was dressed in a dark navy suit which complemented the depth of his eyes. Although he was sitting, she could see that he had broad shoulders and when he leaned back, his light blue shirt stretched across a chest and abs that made her mouth water. Dale used to have a little definition to his torso but nothing like this and he’d let himself go a while since anyway. She suddenly realised how much she missed seeing a man with a perfect – no, mouth-watering - body.

  This man could not be described merely as perfect though. He was totally and utterly out of this world; his legs were long, indicating his height and they were at present crossed lazily under his desk. Her eyes automatically followed the movement as he crossed and un-crossed them lingering for a brief second on the forbidden area just above his thighs. Oh God, this was bad. Mentally, she gave herself a shake and forced her eyes back up to more ‘acceptable’ areas. Elise hadn’t crushed on a boy for years and she had never crushed on a man – not even Dale when they first met. The feelings enveloping her body as she stood, still unspeaking in this complete strangers office, were totally alien to her and she wasn’t entirely sure whether or not she liked them.

  Chapter Four

  Aware that she had been staring for an inordinate amount of time and now feeling ridiculously embarrassed, Elise finally drew her eyes back up to Vaughn’s face, slightly alarmed to find dark brown eyes regarding her with a somewhat amused expression. Trying to control a sudden hot flush, she moved further into the room so that she was standing directly in front of his desk.

  All sense appeared to have left Elise the second that she walked in the door so she took a moment to mentally pull herself together and draw herself up to her full five foot and four inches. She knew that he was watching her every move and felt the heat of his gaze as it travelled down her height; taking in her small but ample curves, sweeping down the gentle slope of her belly, following on to her legs which today were encased in sheer black tights and finishing at her functional black heels. Her body burned with heat wherever his eyes lingered and she didn’t need to look to know the second that he had finished his scrutiny. His eyes took a leisurely route back up her body and then eventually connected with hers again, a heat flaring between them as bright blue met dark dark brown. Still neither of them had spoken.

  Catching her thoughts before they became any more wayward, she opened her mouth to address him, only to be stopped abruptly by his smooth, husky tone. Having only heard him speak a few words last night and most of those slurred, she was pleasantly surprised to find his tone both warm and alluring. She began to imagine him in another time and place; whispering in her ear, telling her what he would like to do to her body, telling her that she was beautiful. A warm feeling passed through her, igniting goose bumps along the way and Elise was startled to realise that she was getting aroused, feeling a dampness beginning to pool in her panties. She also realised that she had not heard one thing that Vaughn had said.

  As if aware that her thoughts had wandered yet again, Vaughn coughed to bring her back to the present and addressed her once more.

  “Miss Grayson. What a pleasant surprise,” he commented innocently. “I wasn’t aware we had a meeting?”

  A meeting? The nerve of the man. Not ten minutes ago, he had been propositioning her by e-mail and now he was suggesting that she needed permission to be in his office.

  “A meeting? Hang on a minute...” she spluttered “What the hell are you talking about and what’s with this Miss Grayson business? How do you even know my last name?” She was starting to get angry now as more and more things didn’t make sense. “Last night you were Vaughn, a drunken letch, a new colleague and one that I was planning to avoid like the plague. Today you are Mr Vaughn Granger, Managing Director and sending me totally improper e-mails-not to mention taking advantage of Olivia. Excuse me if we don’t have a meeting, but I think that I need - no wait - deserve, an explanation.” Stopping, she watched and waited; waiting for him to say something, anything.

  Vaughn continued to regard her steadily and appeared to show little emotion to her outburst. The seconds ticked by as he seemed to consider his answer and as Elise waited, the silence in the small office became heavier – charged.

  Finally he spoke, breaking the atmosphere with his ridiculously sexy voice and Elise was glad that the silence had been eventually broken.

  “Last night and this morning I am one and the same person,” he said “and the fact that you weren’t aware of my position within the Company is because no one at ground level was. Last night was an.....error of judgement. However, I have never taken advantage of anyone and I can assure you that last night, Olivia was more than happy to go along with my plans.” He paused, regarding her coolly now. “I have bought into the Company and am now in a position of some power. I know your last name because I employ you and, whilst I appreciate my appearance last night may have indicated to the contrary, I am not and never have been a letch, as you so delicately put it.”

  “Unfortunately for you, perhaps,” he continued, “my new ‘power’ gives me the freedom to work wherever I choose in the company. Since I have always enjoyed the cut and thrust of the sales environment, I have decided to work out in the field, taking charge of the sales force at conferences and venues and picking up leads from ‘off site’, hence the title. My buy-in to the company has given me the largest single shareholding stake, which means that I am in a position of unquestionable seniority. Consequently for you, Miss Grayson, that means that I am now your boss.”

  Elise took a moment to digest this information, trying to make sense of what was happening. With all the difficulties in her personal life, Cole and Andrews & Andrews had been the two things that she could count on to remain the same and now it seemed that this rug was being pulled out from underneath her. She could not continue to work the conferences and venues with this man - he was insufferable, arrogant, conceited and far too good looking for his own good. She knew his type; wealthy and beautiful, a player, love ‘em and leave ‘em. Olivia, it would seem, was already testament to that. She refused to consider why it should bother her so much; she just knew that no good could come of continuing this ‘game’. He held all the power and, whilst that rankled, she knew better than to take issue with it and decided that her only plan was to bow out gracefully. Well, as gracefully as Elise Geraldine Grayson ever bowed out of anything.

  “Mr Granger,” - Two could play at this constant use of last names - “Whilst I don’t pretend to understand the intricacies of this situation and I am at a complete loss as to why someone with your ‘power’ would feel the need to get steaming drunk and prey on a young and innocent employee last night, I know that my...working.. for you will not play out well for either of us and I would like to take this opportunity to inform you that I will be speaking to Cole...um, Mr Andrews, to arrange to withdraw from the off-site sales team with immediate effect. There will be no need for us to maintain any type of relationship and therefore the fact that we don’t have a ‘meeting’ is entirely irrelevant!” There – that should make him realise that she wasn’t to be messed with. She would miss the conferences and off site work, no two ways about it, but she woul
d not compromise her standards to work with someone who appeared to have so little regard for anyone else.

  “Mmmm..” he responded, the glimmer of a smile hovering around his eyes, “You make your point well and whilst I must admit that your argument has its merits, my problem is this: Technically I am not only your boss, but I am also Cole Andrew’s boss which means I get to override any decisions he may deem suitable.” His eyes, now almost black, held her gaze steadily and she tried to hold her ground, refusing to be the one to break contact or show any weakness. “A decision involving you leaving the team is not one that I consider to be suitable and therefore I find myself already overriding any such scenario. You have been top seller for the past two months” he paused, allowing her to take on board the implication of his statement “Besides which, Miss Grayson, I find that I want you very much and I am not a man accustomed to being denied.” He delivered the last sentence completely deadpan although the heat beginning to reflect in his eyes belied the fact that he was unaffected.

  There was an intensity to this man that both aroused and frightened Elise. He had no right to stake any claim over her, she was married, and she was totally sick and tired of people thinking that this made no difference whatsoever. However she couldn’t deny the feelings rushing through her body at the thought of being at the complete mercy of this stunning man.

  Realising that she was in danger of losing ground, Elise physically backed up a little and strove to keep an evenness to her tone that she was far from feeling. “Mr Granger....Vaughn.....as I stated in my e-mails this morning, I am a married woman and as such, I am completely unavailable to be wanted by anyone other than my husband – let alone a drunken letch, with, it would seem, more money than sense.” She took a breath and then continued.

  “I enjoy my job very much, particularly the conference and venues side of it, and so I will continue to work for you off site. I would however be grateful if you could refrain from e-mailing me again unless it is a work related matter. As such, perhaps we could just forget that this conversation ever took place.”