The Love Of Money - S01 E20

6 days ago

The Love Of Money - S01 E20

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 20

We stayed like that for a full fifteen seconds before she finally pulled away. She kept her arms loosely draped over my shoulders and stayed well within my personal bubble, her big, dark eyes staring up at me and breaking my heart with every passing moment. The smile on her face was radiant, and I couldn't help but smile back.

God I wanted to kiss her.

"I can't begin to thank you enough, Marcus," Natalie said.

I shook my head, breaking the spell of that moment, "No need. You deserve it. You're a really hard worker, and you know all our major accounts intimately. Anyway, you're also the only person at this company I genuinely like."

Her eyes suddenly became bright, and I could detect a faint hint of unshed tears in them. Her smile softened, and I felt her arms slightly tense around my neck. She leaned in, closing the distance between the two of us and for a split second, I thought we were going to kiss and then she went for the cheek, pressing her full, warm lips against my skin. I closed my eyes and just enjoyed the moment, very aware that we'd never quite been this close physically. The corner of her mouth was just out of reach of mine, and I was fully aware that I could have turned my head a fraction of an inch and our lips would have connected. I didn't want to risk ruining the moment, or making it awkward. Instead, I simply tightened my hand on her back, my fingertips massaging the muscles in the middle of her back over her blouse.

Finally, she pulled back, smiling shyly as she bruised a bit of hair behind her ear. "Thank you. I like you too."

We sat there on the couch grinning at each other goofily for who knows how long, when she finally cleared her throat, "So, what's the plan? What should I do?"

I adjusted myself on the couch and tried to cool myself off, attempting to tamp down the butterflies in my stomach while also wondering if I'd missed an opportunity in that awkward moment of silence. I hope made the right call.

I tried to switch my brain from breeding mode to business mode, "Take the rest of the day. Get your stuff together. Go home. Mentally prep... whatever you need to do. You'll need to fill out some paperwork, but I'll have them send it to Gina's office - your office- and you can fill it out tomorrow."

"I'll need you to go over the accounts and personnel and make recommendations on how you'd like to tailor things to your oversight. I'd also like to give everyone a pay bump, but I'd like your recommendation on exactly how much. And there are a handful of people we should probably cut loose. My only request is that you not fire Bobbl. At least, not yet."

Natalie was nodding along up until that last request, at which she knitted her eyebrows together in confusion. "Firing her was one of my first thoughts. Why not? Everyone hates that bitch."

I nodded, "I still do, but when I fired Gina, she gave me some information that I can't ignore. Honestly, it's too juicy. I'm going to be speaking to her right after this. I'll fill you in on the details tomorrow."

She grinned at that, "I can't wait to hear how that goes."

"Speaking of which, I'll need to go ahead and speak to her."

We stood up and she straightened her skirt, "Well, thank you again for this Marcus. It means so much to me. You'll fill me in a bit more on some of the details on how this happened." Suddenly, a look of horror came over her, "Oh god, you didn't lose someone, did you?"

Technically, I had, but it wasn't like I'd miss a man I'd never met.

"No... It wasn't anything like that. But I promise, I'll tell you more about it. Maybe tomorrow while you're getting settled in," I replied. We gave each other a hug, our bodies pressing much closer than they'd ever been in the past. When she pulled back to look at me, I swear we almost kissed. I locked eyes with her, and read so much in them. Fondness, camaraderie, and....maybe desire?

She kissed my cheek once more. This time the corner of her mouth actually did brush mine, and I couldn't resist the temptation any longer. I moved my head and our lips were on each other's, and we shared our first kiss. It was closed-mouth and sweet, but held the promise of so much more. Her lips were more soft and pliant than I could have ever imagined, and I could feel my stomach doing backflips while fireworks were going off in my brain. After a few more seconds, we pulled back and both smiled a little awkwardly before stepping apart.

"Thank you," I finally said.

"No, no... thank you," she replied with a sheepish smile.

"I've wondered what that would be like for a while now."

"You have?"

I nodded, "Yeah. For weeks."

"I might have too," she said, her words slightly breathy. She visibly swallowed. "I wouldn't mind another one."

I opened my mouth to tell her the same, when there was a light knock on the door. Both of us jumped a foot away from each other and Natalie was immediately trying to make herself seem as if everything was professional and normal.

A heartbeat later, the door opened several inches and Vikram peered in the room, "Mr. Upton?"

We both looked at him.

"I have Bobbi Nanford with me?"

"Alright," I said, looking back to Natalie.

She gave me a soft smile, "I'll leave you to it. Talk to you tomorrow?"

"Absolutely," I responded, returning the smile. "I'll see you soon."

Vikram stepped aside as Natalie departed. A heartbeat later, Helen slipped into the room past Vikram, "Could you please send in Bobbi, please?"

"Yes ma'am," Vikram said and shut the door behind her..

"Hey," I said. Suddenly the thoughts I'd had for bending Helen over my desk and fucking her was paled in light of the kiss I'd just shared with Natalie. Apparently Helen could tell something had happened.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yeah," I said as I circled the desk and sat in the chair.

She eyed me for a moment, "Forgive me, but that wasn't very convincing."

I leaned back in the comfortable office chair and simply stared at her for a long moment as I tried to gather my thoughts. Why did Helen have to be so gorgeous?

"Natalie and I kissed," I finally said. "We've worked together for nearly a year and I've always had a thing for her. She broke up with her boyfriend about a month ago. And now with all of this, I waved my hand around, "All this opportunity... I think I might have a good shot at a great life with an amazing girl, and I don't want to mess it up." I looked up at her with an apology in my eyes.

She crossed her arms under her breasts, "Literally anyone would kill to be where you are, Marcus." She walked over to the desk and sat on the corner of the desk next to me. Her skirt was tight enough to give me an enticing view of the curvature of her hips and ass. "Don't throw it away for a single person. You could end up making very costly mistakes." She leaned across the desk, her blouse falling to give me a mouth-watering view down her front. "You could have an entire bevy of beautiful women who adore you and are devoted to you. Like I am. Why settle for just one?"

"This isn't-"

"Just anyone," she finished my thought. "I know." Helen leaned forward, reached out and ran an index finger down my jawline before cupping my chin gently in her hand. She ran a thumb across my lips. I could feel her gaze on me, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from the view down her blouse. She stretched forward a bit more till her lips were less than an inch from mine. I lifted my gaze to hers as her tongue ran across my lips. I opened them and the tips of our tongues barely brushed each other. After the kiss I'd just shared with Natalie and now this, my cock felt like it was going to burst.

"Trust me, Marcus. You don't want to give this up," she whispered, her lips not quite parting from mine.

And then a knock at the door interrupted us before i had a chance to respond. Helen gave me a wicked smile and slid off the desk, straightening her skirt as she retreated to a corner of the office just to the right of the door. Another more insistent knock came.

I rolled my eyes, knowing exactly who it was on the other side. Even her knocking was obnoxious, "Come In!"

Bobbi threw the door open as she strode into the office without even bothering to close it. One of the body guards from YPV stepped into the room, grabbed the door, and closed it quietly behind her. Bobbi glared at me with those cold gray eyes, "What the hell is this?"

I Immediately felt on edge as I met her stare. Bobbi was more than half a foot shorter than me, but her domineering attitude, her relationship with Gina, and the way she wielded HR like a cudgel had always given her an aura of intimidation. My knee jerk reaction was to placate her till she went away.

"You're looking at the new owner of Marduke Financial," Helen said behind her. Bobbi looked over her shoulder, her loose, auburn hair flinging through the air to cover the look of disdain she was throwing at Helen. She looked back at me, eyes narrowed into

slits.

"Seriously. What's this about? Why the fuck are you up here?"