Hired, page 3
Hadley followed Sebastian into the building, where the security guards almost jumped into a formal salute when they spotted him. “Good morning, Mr. LeClerc.” Hank, the head of security at the Columbia Tower, rushed over. “Is everything okay?” He gave Hadley a thorough once-over, the disapproval about his dirty pants thick on his face.
Sebastian sucked at remembering names, but he’d never forget Hank’s again. The man had saved him once from an admirer who wouldn’t take no for an answer and had been borderline stalkerish. Hank had managed to persuade her that continuing to follow Sebastian around would be a bad idea and had earned Sebastian’s praise—no small feat, considering most people annoyed him.
“This is Hadley Foster. He's on the visitor’s list and needs a pass. You can bring it up to my office.” Sebastian gestured at Hadley, then continued to the elevator without waiting for an answer.
“Yes, Mr. LeClerc. I’ll get right on it.”
“Thank you,” Hadley said to Hank, then hurried after Sebastian.
Sebastian flashed his pass, then pressed the button for the elevator that would bring them straight to the sixty-fourth floor, where LeClerc Robotics had its offices. “After you,” he said to Hadley when the elevator doors opened.
A quick check confirmed that yes, Hadley's ass was dirty and wet, the fabric of his pants clinging to his luscious forms. He might be slender overall, but that ass was spectacular. Well, at least the view would be an improvement over the girl who started last week, who, Sebastian was certain, was quite attractive for a woman but didn’t do much for him. If he’d been into women, he would've found her curves and full breasts pleasant to look at. Not that he would ever consider sleeping with someone who worked for him, even though he suspected Hadley was gay. He might not be discriminant in his bed partners and go through them like tissues, discarding them after use, but even he had lines he wouldn't cross.
“I’m sorry, but Caitlyn never told me the name of the firm she worked for,” Hadley said.
Right, Caitlyn. That was her name. “That's quite unprofessional of her.”
“She wasn't feeling well and not at her best. I should've asked her for it, but in my hurry to make it here on time, I didn't think of it either.”
“That sounded an awful lot like another apology.”
The frustration with Sebastian was obvious from the expression on Hadley’s face, which suppressed annoyance and eyes that flashed with temper. Oh, that expressive face would get them into trouble. Was it weird that Sebastian looked forward to it?
The elevator doors whooshed open. Sebastian gestured for Hadley to go first, taking the opportunity to get another look in at that luscious ass. Sebastian marched straight to his office, offering a few nods here and there in response to greetings from his employees. He walked up to Beryl, who looked up with barely veiled annoyance. She’d always been disapproving of him, but ever since his father had retired, she’d become the definition of an old hag. “This is Hadley, the new PA. For now, at least. Get him installed.”
“Yes, Mr. LeClerc,” she said, her tone so arctic he could practically see icicles hanging from her lips.
Okay, that was taken care of. Hopefully, Hadley would be smarter than the average of the personal assistants Sebastian had endured so far. Maybe he was expecting too much from the temp agency or the intelligence level of PAs in general, but it had been one disaster after another. He might not like Beryl, but she'd done a decent job for his father. Unfortunately, she'd never warmed up to Sebastian, and that feeling was mutual. Was it too much to ask for him to find his own Beryl, preferably in male form, so he had something pretty to look at?
With a sigh, he entered his office, where a cup of coffee was waiting for him, the waft indicating it was hot despite his late arrival. Beryl's doing. She was a total bitch to him, but even she knew better than to deprive him of his caffeine fix. She’d once called him unbearable when he’d gone without coffee too long, and it had been one of the few times she’d been right.
He took off his suit jacket and hung it in the small walk-in closet in his office, then unbuttoned his shirt as well. The drizzling rain had soaked through his jacket, and the wet fabric clung to his skin, making him shiver. Luckily, he always kept several spare outfits in his closet. One never knew when a wardrobe malfunction happened before an important presentation. He’d experienced multiple disasters like that, most of the time involving spilled coffee, hence his habit of keeping clean shirts and suits in his office.
And to think the whole debacle would never have happened if he’d driven to the office, like he usually did, rather than taking a taxi. As much as the traffic in Seattle annoyed him, he loved driving his Jaguar. Just the restrained purr of the engine, with all that power brewing underneath, ready to explode, was enough to make him hard. But this morning, he’d needed to look over some papers on the commute, and so he’d called a cab, which had dropped him off in front of the building. If not for that, he would never have been outside. Whether that had been bad or good luck remained to be seen.
He’d just put on a clean shirt, still unbuttoned, when someone knocked on his door. Already? He couldn't even enjoy his cup of coffee in peace? “Enter.”
He walked into his office and found Hadley standing there, his eyes widening when he spotted Sebastian. He could've buttoned his shirt, of course, but why would he when Hadley's reddening cheeks were such a delicious sight? He might draw the line at fucking him, but he could play with his prey, couldn’t he? He brought his shoulders back, letting the shirt fall open as wide as possible. “What can I do for you?”
Hadley dragged his gaze upward, his blush like a caress to Sebastian’s balls, then swallowed. “Beryl… Mrs. Swan suggested you might have dry pants for me. She said you keep spare ones in your office?” His voice was breathless, almost a squeak near the end. Cute.
Sebastian gestured at his dress shirt. “As you can see, I do. I'd be happy to give you pants, but you'll drown in them.”
“I realize that, but I can't sit down with my pants being as wet and dirty as they are. They would ruin the chair and be quite uncomfortable. I'll roll up the legs or something.”
He would look like an idiot, but Sebastian couldn't deny that the prospect of having to work in soaking wet pants wouldn't appeal to him either. He walked back into his closet, then came out with a pair of sweat pants that were a little short on him after being washed too hot. Too bad he couldn’t offer Hadley to get changed in front of him. He would’ve loved to get a better look at his ass. But that would cross into sexually harassing behavior, and he was already skating on thin ice with him.
“Here.” He threw them at Hadley. “That's the smallest pair I have.”
Hadley caught them. “They’re sweat pants.”
“I'm impressed by your acute observation.”
“I can't wear sweat pants. It's unprofessional.”
“So is having dirty and wet pants, and yet here we are.”
Hadley bit his lip again. “True. I'll take them, then. Thank you.”
“I hope that once you're satisfied with your wardrobe, you can get to work. We've already missed a lot of time.”
“Yes, sir.”
Hadley shot him one more look, his eyes once again dropping to Sebastian's chest, then jerked his head around and walked out. Mmm, that blush… Such a feast for the eyes. His reaction had confirmed what Sebastian had already suspected from the moment he'd laid eyes on Hadley. He was into men. No straight man would ever have spent that much time looking at his chest.
Granted, it was a nice chest that many of his lovers had expressed admiration for. Even better was the fact that he had to do little to stay in shape, blessed as he was with a fast metabolism, though he did work out regularly. But Hadley had been fascinated, unable to keep his eyes off it. Too bad nothing could ever come from it. Oh well, he had plenty of potential partners to choose from.
He finished buttoning his shirt, put an immaculate double Windsor knot in his tie, hung the new suit jacket over his chair, then sat down behind his computer. What frustrated him about incidents like this morning was that they threw him off his routine. He'd made the right choice staying and helping that poor woman. That wasn’t even a question. He might not be blessed with much empathy, but even he could muster compassion for a pregnant, fainting woman.
But the price he paid for helping was irritation because now he was behind schedule. In itself, already something that frustrated him, but he also felt off-balance because his routine had been altered so much. Yes, it was a stupid thing to be upset about, and again, when he mentally distanced himself from his emotions, he could acknowledge that, but damn, it was hard to let go of his annoyance. On a good day, this job was already so much harder than he’d ever imagined, let alone when he was behind schedule and off his normal routine.
Okay, email first. Maybe today it wouldn't be as bad. As soon as he opened Mail on his Mac, that hope vanished into thin air. Holy shit. When he had decided to take over his father's company, he'd never considered that meant spending hours a day answering emails. It had been a challenge before he’d become CEO, but now it was brutal. Torture. Why had he thought this would be fun again? He took a deep breath and started at the bottom of what had come in overnight.
An hour had passed before he came up for air again, his coffee cup empty by now. Where was his second cup? Did he have to remind people of everything? Was it too much to ask that Beryl remembered to tell Hadley to bring him coffee? He rubbed his temples, leaning back in his chair. Damn, he needed that second shot of caffeine.
Just then, a brief knock on the door sounded. “Enter.”
Hadley came in, carrying a small tray with a Starbucks cup and a plate with something Sebastian couldn't see. Hadley put the coffee in front of him. “Venti True North Blonde Roast, two pumps of hazelnut syrup, two sugars, two creams. And a slice of banana bread.”
He'd gotten the order right too. “Thank god. I was about to die.”
“I'll make a note to bring it to you earlier tomorrow.”
“Yes. Eleven o’clock sharp.”
“Is there anything else, sir?”
“Track down that pregnant woman we helped and send her some kind of luxurious fruit basket or whatever it is people send to a new mother. Beryl has the company credit card.”
Hadley smiled. “Yes, sir. I’ll make sure to check everything went well with the delivery first. She’s probably still in labor, and we don’t want to congratulate her when the outcome is still uncertain.”
God, yes. Deborah, his sister, had been in labor for twenty hours with her first one. What a nerve-racking experience that had been. He’d spent hours in the hospital in the waiting room with his father while his mother and brother-in-law were in the delivery room, and he’d been shocked at how long it had taken.
“Good.” He gave him a dismissive nod.
Hadley turned around and walked toward the door. Sebastian snorted. His sweat pants, while tight and small on himself, were way too big for Hadley, both in length and in width. He’d rolled up the legs, and he must've pulled the waist strings as tightly as he could, but he was drowning in them, his ass not even visible in the puffy fabric. It looked ridiculous and yet somehow cute and adorable.
“I'll return them to you tomorrow, washed,” Hadley said over his shoulder.
“Don’t bother washing them. That's what I have a laundry service for.”
“I'll drop off your suit for dry-cleaning when I go home.”
Oh, good. At least Sebastian didn't have to ask for that. He nodded and turned his attention back to his computer. His eyes fell on an email, and he swiveled his chair around again, catching Hadley just before he was about to close the door. “Hold on. I also need the latest test report on the Mow Buddy.”
“Yes, sir. I'll get right on it.”
Hadley closed the door behind him. Sebastian frowned. Why hadn't Hadley asked what Sebastian was talking about? He'd been here for an hour. No way on earth could he be familiar with their products yet, especially because, by his own admission, he hadn't even known who he'd be working for, what kind of company it was, and the products they made. So how would he be able to get the test report without asking Sebastian more details?
He shook it off. Not his problem. Hadley would have to learn to ask questions if he wanted to be good at his job, but teaching him that wasn’t Sebastian's responsibility. He directed his focus back on his email inbox, which had increased by another ten emails.
Fuck. His. Life.
3
Hadley was not happy, and that was putting it mildly. He'd been a PA for four years now, and he'd been through a lot. Unorganized clients were nothing new to him, and the same held true for strange situations, emergencies, unfriendly coworkers, and even grumpy bosses. But what he'd seen at LeClerc Robotics so far was at a whole new level.
Beryl was friendly to him on the surface, but she had no intention of helping him find his way. They shared a workspace, which was more of an open office, a hallway that offered a view of the elevators. Hadley’s desk was positioned so that he could see people coming. Beryl sat at her desk against the opposite wall of the room, with her back toward the hallway. Probably on purpose. To Hadley’s right was the door to Sebastian’s office, with another door leading to a meeting room. On the other side was a long hallway that led to the other offices occupied by LeClerc Robotics. All their administrative personnel was stationed here, while their production facilities were elsewhere, including some outside the US. Google had been helpful in finding all that out.
Beryl, however, hadn’t been helpful at all. When he'd asked her a few questions, her answers had been brief and dismissive. Not impolite or rude, but she wasn’t investing any energy in making him succeed in his job. Why, he had no idea, but he'd have to solve that puzzle another day.
Caitlyn hadn't been much help either. Yes, she had texted him the login and password so he could get into the computer system, but after that, she hadn't responded to the twelve questions he had sent her. Maybe she was sleeping? Not outside of the realm of possibilities, considering how sick she’d sounded. He couldn't blame her for resting, but it did make his job a lot harder.
The only practical information she’d sent him other than the login was that Mr. LeClerc needed coffee at eleven and three p.m. He wanted Starbucks coffee from the Starbucks a few floors down, and Hadley had snickered when she texted him the exact orders. Somehow, they fit Sebastian to a t. Hadley had been ten minutes late on the eleven-o'clock coffee, but at least he'd managed to get it. He'd set an alarm for the second one.
His first priority was to find the report Sebastian had asked for. No, not Sebastian. Mr. LeClerc. He'd better remember that before he fucked that up. He was already off to a bad start. God, he was working in sweat pants, for fuck’s sake. Sweat pants that were three sizes too big on him and made him look like an idiot in front of his boss. His insanely hot boss. Holy shit, his bare chest had been…
Hadley swallowed. He’d seen plenty of naked chests before and nice ones too, but few had affected him the way Sebastian’s had. The man just oozed sexiness from that wild hair Hadley wanted to run his hands through to those kissable lips and that beard that looked so soft. And his chest, of course, covered with dark hair that made it so masculine and sexy, with a tantalizing trail that led downward, past his belly button, to where his pants had hung low on his hips.
Hadley could barely hold back a moan. Why was a man half-dressed ten times hotter than a guy completely naked? Especially when dressed in suit pants and a sharp button-down that fell open just to show off his chest hair and his hard nipples. He’d wanted to climb him like a tree, rub himself against him until he came. Suck on those nipples while Sebastian fucked him hard.
What the hell was he doing, thinking about the man’s nipples, about his boss fucking him? Was he out of his mind? Mr. LeClerc was his boss, and he’d damn well better remember that. Fuck, he needed to get laid. Badly.
Dammit, focus. He had to focus. Okay, Sebastian had called it the latest test report on the Mow Buddy. What the hell was that? As always, Google was his friend. A quick search revealed that LeClerc Robotics made, not surprisingly considering their name, a broad range of automated electronics, including smart Robo vacuums, sprinkler systems, various kinds of domestic robots, and an automated field lining system for sports fields. What were the odds the Mow Buddy he had referred to was a robot lawn mower? That had to be it.
Good. Now, where would he be able to find that test report? A company like this would have it digitally, right? It made little sense for a company that focused on robotics to create paper reports. No, it would have to be somewhere in the system. Luckily, they used Macs, not Windows computers, which made Hadley's job a lot easier. Sure, he could work with Windows well enough, since he had to, but he much preferred Apple.
But when he opened the Finder, his heart sank. Had no one heard of an organized structure with self-explanatory folders? Oh, there were folders, all right. About a hundred of them, if not more. Also, a gazillion files were not put into folders, and they all had the weirdest names, some random combination of capitals and numbers. What the hell kind of system was this?
He’d have to ask Beryl. Fingers crossed she’d be willing to help him with this. “Beryl, would you be able to explain to me the logic of the folders and files on the system?”
Beryl turned her chair around to him. “Honey, that system has been in absolute chaos ever since the older Mr. LeClerc left two years ago.”
Hadley frowned. “And no one has ever attempted to reorganize it?”
“No one has ever lasted long enough.”
Well, that didn't sound ominous. At all. “I'm not following.”
