Naughty Temptations

Chapter Two-2

“I agree. But if she isn’t a good person, she won’t be our true mate. If she is our mate, that proves she’s innocent.”

“Oh for f**k’s sake, Drake, wake up to yourself. Are you saying there’s never been a bad dragon in this world? Take a reality check and pay attention to those files. Get your head out of your ass and do your research properly.”

*****

It took Drake two days to search the backgrounds of every staff member at Optimized Design from the moment of their birth up to the day he’d visited the company offices. The surprising thing was that there were so few of them. He’d have expected a lot more designers and IT people in a company that size. Two designers had left in the past six months. Neither had been replaced. One was the woman who’d been terminated when she became pregnant, although both Mallory and the paperwork were careful not to say that. The data said her work was no longer up the standards set by the company. The other was a young man who’d had the temerity to say their products were outdated and wanted to begin designing a completely different style of product. His termination letter stated that his values no longer matched those of the company.

It appeared that Karl Mallory was clever at making the paperwork look good, even when he made really bad decisions.

Drake’s math had been correct. Ten people worked at the company, and there were fifteen—or possibly sixteen—spaces in the parking lot. So where did they park? If there was a lot out back, why didn’t they sublet the parking to another company? It’d bring in a nice bit of income. Parking wasn’t easy to find in the city.

Secondly, ten workers weren’t enough for the company to thrive. The good news was if he and Dragun brought in some more bright young designers they should be able to start turning a profit quite quickly. Provided they found out who the cheat was and removed him. More and more he was convinced it was Mallory. Mallory appeared to be in charge of just about everything now that Frank Wilson was away. He certainly seemed to be the one person all staff reported to, either via their supervisor or directly.

And that was the problem. Since everyone reported to him, he knew everything and controlled everything. As the CFO, he had the skills and abilities to hide any financial malfeasance. Fortunately he’d thought of the perfect solution. Wine and dine little Miss Lois, squeeze all the information about the company from her that she knew, and then f**k her thoroughly. That should solve most of their problems in one very pleasurable night.

He leaned back in his armchair and looked across the room at Dragun sitting in a matching armchair on the other side of the huge fireplace. “I’ve reached my conclusion. How about you?”

“Almost a million dollars has disappeared in a slow trickle over the past three years. It might have been going on longer than that, but we only asked for three years of financials. However, since Frank had that heart attack, another half-million has vanished, which proves to me the old man isn’t involved. But then I never thought he was. My guess regarding the culprit is the CFO. He has all the access he needs, plus the financial knowhow to do it. It’s time to have one of our friends do a complete financial and security check on him.”

“I agree.”

“Good. Let’s also have the bookkeeper checked as well.”

“Why?” Drake didn’t understand the need for the extra work and expense.

“I know you have the hots for her, but I’d rather not get burned. If she’s smart, she might be the one doing it and setting him up as the fall guy.”

“Very well. I don’t want a cheating mate any more than you do. But while that’s happening, let’s take her out to dinner and squeeze her for information. She must know everything that’s happening in such a small company.”

“If she’s that smart, she’ll figure out what we’re doing and cover her tracks.”

“Not if we f**k her. She’ll be distracted by our lust.”

“What if I don’t want to f**k her?” Dragun stared at him, and Drake realized it was time to tell his twin all about her.

“I’ve told you I felt a real pull toward her the moment I saw her. I’m sure she’ll affect you the same way. I’ve just spent two days searching every shred of information available about all the staff at Optimized Design, and her life’s an open book. She’s not the least bit secretive and has never been the kind of person to be involved in petty crime or expressed desires for other’ people’s possessions. She put herself through community college after she chose to study bookkeeping. In her high school yearbook, she mentions wanting to be an accountant, but I suppose the money wasn’t there to send her to a school where she could earn her degree.”

Dragun sighed. “All right. How about we set the searches going first and then invite her out. How are we even going to do that? Her cell phone number is in the files we were given, but won’t she be worried or upset if you suddenly call her for no reason?”

“I’ll just tell her I asked Mallory for her number. It’s close enough to the truth. And, for the first date, we’ll go somewhere really public that won’t scare her away.” That would make it harder to get her into bed, but he’d work on how to do that.

*****

“Lois. Ladies room.”

Lois looked up at the soft whisper from Bree, who instantly disappeared down the hallway.

The ladies room was the only place they could share a secret in the old building. The ill-fitting doors and windows that meant the place was full of cold drafts in winter also meant that words spoken inside an office could often be overheard in the hallway, and no one wanted to give Mr. Mallory a chance to be cross with them.

However, Bree telling her she was going to the ladies room could be excused as simply keeping her informed in case someone wanted Bree at the moment.

Lois logged out of the program on her computer and closed down the files she had open. It was something they always had to do before leaving their desks, even for a moment. The last thing she needed was to give Mr. Mallory an opportunity to berate her for exposing confidential data to passersby. This was despite the fact that the only passerby who’d been in the building in the past three months or more was the extremely handsome client who’d visited a week or so ago. Lois still had thoughts of his sparkling blue eyes and oh-so-delicious looking body. Not that she’d ever see him again, unfortunately.

She opened the heavy door to the ladies room and stood still until it closed behind her. The lights here were movement operated and would only turn on after the door shut. The lights also turned off automatically after a few minutes to discourage women from lingering in the bathroom.

It was just another way of repressing the staff. The men’s room lights turned on automatically but didn’t turn off until the outer door opened. Mr. Mallory said that was because men didn’t waste time “titivating” themselves at the mirrors. Lois thought it was more likely that he didn’t want to be rushed when he visited to use the facilities.

Lois was glad she hadn’t taken another step into the room. Bree was standing just in front of her, and Cathy, the receptionist, was leaning against the sink, dabbing at her face. Her eyes were red, and she’d obviously been crying. Lois looked back over her shoulder to check that the door was completely shut then asked, “Cathy, what’s wrong?”

“Mr. Mallory just terminated me. He said the company can’t afford a receptionist anymore. He said”—there was a hiccup, a sniff, and then—“‘we no longer wish to pay a lazy cow to sit on her fat ass all day doing nothing much.’ He’s going to put a buzzer on the door, and Bree will have to answer the door if anyone rings the bell. But I don’t just answer the door and the telephone. I do all the catalogue updates and the website updates. I book appointments for the sales reps and—”

Cathy leaned over the sink and started to cry again. Lois could finish the sentence in her head. Cathy worked as hard as anyone else here, and Mr. Mallory was crazy if he thought all she did was answer the phone and the front door. Now wasn’t the time to ask who was going to do Cathy’s work though, or to act surprised that he had said such cruel, horrible, and untrue things to her. She hurried over to Cathy and gave her a hug just as the lights went out.

Bree said, “You have to ask him for a reference. He might give you a good one to help you find another job.”

“He also might not. Remember when Sherry left?” Cathy was clearly trying hard not to cry, but her voice was full of woe.

Sherry had worked with Rodney in IT, and Mr. Mallory hadn’t given her a reference, but Rodney had. He’d signed it as Senior Design Developer, which was a bit of an exaggeration when there were only the two of them, but he’d been senior to Sherry, so it wasn’t a total lie.

“I have to get back to my desk,” said Bree. She must have stretched out her arms in the darkness to feel her way forward, as there was the brush of fingers on Lois’s back, and then Bree opened the door, letting in a helpful shaft of light as she left.

Bree had opened the door wide so the bathroom light came on again, and Lois helped Cathy wash her face. She tried to sound cheery, but in her heart, she wasn’t convinced Mr. Mallory would give Cathy a good reference.

Lois sighed. The yummy-looking clients couldn’t have bought much, if anything then, since Mr. Mallory was downsizing the company again. Well damn, that was disappointing. The one who’d spoken had seemed so nice. For the first time, Lois began to worry that maybe there wasn’t a problem with the accounts. Maybe what she was seeing was a company sliding into bankruptcy. Her elderly parents couldn’t support her and neither could her siblings. Stacy was separated with a son to rear on her own, and Don had a nice house and a good job, but he also had a wife and three children to support. No, she was on her own, and she needed a job.

The moment Lois got home, she opened up her laptop and looked at the employment ads. As soon as she listed her location as Ohio, the number of vacancies for an experienced bookkeeper dropped from over one hundred to five. Just five. The good news was that the starting salary for every one of them was higher than what she was earning. The bad news was that Lois suspected there’d be a hell of a lot of applicants for each vacancy.

She’d lived her whole life in Ohio. Was she willing to move somewhere else? Maybe somewhere warmer with shorter winters and less snow? That was something she ought to think about.

Sighing, she pulled up her old resume and began to update it. The problem was she hadn’t really done anything very exciting. Just the kind of tasks any bookkeeper could do. By nine that night, she realized that she’d been stuck in a rut for years and hadn’t noticed. She had more than enough work to do, but nothing was new or challenging or different. Nothing had been the kind of task that would urge an employer to call her in for an interview.

It was no use asking Mr. Mallory to let her try some new work. He was very much in control and gave out jobs piecemeal without explanations. The last thing he’d be willing to do was help her upskill to get a better job or a pay increase.

Damn. She was going to be s**t out of luck if the company went down. She would have to seriously consider leaving family and friends behind her and going somewhere else? But where?

She leaned back in her chair, staring at the computer screen. Her tummy rumbling reminded her she hadn’t eaten yet, so she stood up to heat her soup, and as she did, her cell phone rang. She snatched her purse and riffled through it for her cell, hoping the call wouldn’t drop out before she found the phone. “Yes?” she asked breathlessly as “withheld number” appeared on the screen.

“Lois McCubbin, this is Drake Kelekona,” a deep, rich, and sexy voice said.

For a moment Lois thought it was a salesperson and was about to end the call when the sexy voice penetrated her brain. “The man who came to the office last week? Why are you calling me?”

“I’m calling because I can’t get the image of your smiling face out of my mind. So I thought you might like to have dinner with me on Saturday night at Urbane. I could pick you up at seven.”

Lois was left staring at her cell phone. It had been years since someone had invited her out for dinner, and she’d never been to Urbane. That was one of the nicest restaurants in the city. Her brain kept telling her to say no, that she didn’t know this man, no matter how sexy his voice might be and how good looking his body was. But her empty tummy was bouncing with delight at the thought of a nice meal for once, and her pride was involved now that someone was flattering her.

“Please don’t let me down. Say yes, dear Lois,” came the sexy voice.

Almost as if he’d brainwashed her, she replied, “Yes.” Then her brain kicked into gear. “I’ll meet you in the foyer there at seven. Thank you very much for the invitation.”

“I do like a woman who says invitation instead of invite. I’ll be waiting for you in the foyer at seven.”

Lois sank back into her chair, all thoughts of soup, resumes, and job searches gone from her mind. Instead, she was focused on a pair of brilliant blue eyes in an incredibly handsome face. He asked me out to dinner. That’s unbelievable. Me!