Page 37 of Office Intrigue (Office Intrigue Duet 1)
At nine forty-five, I decided to head to the back conference room to get the coffee prepared. And a couple minutes shy of the hour, all four men walked in. They were all dressed impeccably, each man wearing a suit and looking like they’d spent the morning on the GQ set.
Admittedly, my heart skipped a beat when I saw that Justin had arrived.
“All clear.” Justin held a single file folder and handed it over to me as he made his way to the coffeepot.
I opened it to see there were five sheets of paper inside.
Test results.
A blush stole over my face as I realized what this meant.
I had emailed my results to Justin on Friday when I received them. He hadn’t responded, which had left me reeling. In fact, I spent the majority of the weekend pondering what the lack of response meant. Had they all changed their mind? Were they testing me? Trying to set me up? Was this their way of getting rid of me?
A million questions had bounced around in my head and I’d had answers to none of them.
Needless to say, it hadn’t been a good weekend.
Well, other than when Kristen and I had grabbed breakfast on Sunday morning. Of course, I hadn’t shared any of the sexy details of my office encounters, opting to keep that to myself for the time being. As it was, Kristen had the ability to read me like a book, so I think she had figured something out, but thankfully, she hadn’t called me on it. It wasn’t every day that a woman was propositioned by her four bosses and said woman found herself craving their attention. I didn’t know if Kristen would understand.
“We’ll get started once everyone takes their seat.”
Justin’s deep voice jarred me from my thoughts and I turned to see that I was the only one still standing. Talk about embarrassing.
Forcing a smile, I moved toward the only empty seat available. It was the one between Langston and Justin, the same one I’d sat in last week. I could feel all eyes on me as I moved and I mentally checked my outfit without looking down to see what I was wearing.
Or rather, what I wasn’t.
Today I had opted for a long, black maxi skirt, which was sheer, except for the tight mini beneath it. The black and red short-sleeve sweater I’d paired with it had given me a boost this morning. It was formfitting, accentuating my breasts, and long enough to reach the waistband of the skirt, but just barely.
Ben kicked things off by discussing upcoming events taking place, including a meeting he had to discuss ROI with one of his clients. He sounded positive as he explained what he was looking to outline for them. After he finished, Landon went into detail about a phone call he’d had with a new author he was hoping to bring on board. I wasn’t paying all that much attention, though, my gaze jumping from one man to another.
I’m not sure what I was expecting, but the fact that no one seemed to be interested in moving this meeting in the same direction as last week’s was making me nervous.
“Luci?”
My gaze snapped over to Langston when his warm hand brushed my forearm.
“Yes, sir?”
“Did you have anything you wanted to discuss?”
Remembering that I had been tasked with setting up the quarterly meeting, I decided to launch into an update on that. “I sent out the invites to all the managers, and I reserved a block of rooms at the Hilton. Each manager has been instructed to book their own room and to use the code I provided, which would offer a discount.”
“Impressive,” Ben said, glancing between all the others. “I didn’t even know we could get a discount.”
That was what I was here for.
“I’ve confirmed our reservations for four of the small conference rooms, and I also have a tentative hold on one of the large ballrooms at the convention center. I wanted to confirm how long we needed it for. Since it’s close to several restaurants and pubs, I wasn’t sure if we wanted to hold a happy hour afterward, which would allow for more personal interaction. Or we could always cater something into the convention center and hold it there.”
“Great ideas,” Landon noted. “I’d like to talk more about that later, whenever you have time.”
“Absolutely, sir.” I jotted it down in my notebook. “Other than that, I’m still working to confirm all managers have RSVP’d, and for those who haven’t, I’m getting details as to whether they are tentative or if it’s a conflict that can’t be helped. There is one relatively new manager who tried to back out, but I informed her that it’s a crucial engagement that will only help her growth within the organization. She has since confirmed she will attend.”
