The CEO's Secret Read online

  “Morning, Dee. What can I do for you today? I hope you’re coming to solve my problem.”

  She laughs, dryly. “No-one can solve your problems, Logan. Your expectations are too high. Way too high. What happened with Whitney?”

  I frown, Whitney, who’s Whitney? Oh, she must be the girl who only lasted a couple of hours yesterday. “She wasn’t suitable. I asked her to do a few jobs and she started panicking. When you hold interviews, Dee, you need to state that this job is pressurised.”

  “It’s only pressurised, Logan, because of your expectations of the amount of work they have to do. You could have three assistants and there would still be room for more.”

  “There’s a lot involved with running a company you know, Dee.”

  “I know that, Logan.” She sighs and shakes her head. “But there comes a time when you have to delegate some of the work down to the directors and managers who get paid a lot of money to be here, but don’t do much because you won’t delegate. You need to change the balance or we’re never going to get an assistant who’ll be able to last a day, let alone a week.”

  “I have trust issues. You know that.”

  “I know. But this is your company we’re talking about, not your next conquest.”

  I groan at that word. Rumours have been spread about me and how I don’t date the same woman twice. I’m an animal in bed apparently. Not sure how they know that, but it’s great for my reputation, so I’ll take it.

  “Do you have someone or not?” I have a meeting to be at in twenty minutes so I’ve got lots to do. Dee needs to hurry the fuck up.

  “The agency have one last person to send over. They said that if this one doesn’t stay then they’re pulling out from working with us. Apparently, you’ve been through most of their women and your reputation precedes you and no one on their books wants to work with you. You’ve got one last chance. Use it wisely.”

  Does she really think she can talk to me like that? Yeah, I guess she can. “Okay, okay. When is she starting? Today?” I glance down at my watch and see that it’s ten o’clock already.

  “Yes they’re in induction right now, but I just wanted to warn you..”

  I don’t give her time to speak. “Induction. She won’t be here long enough for induction if the others are anything to go by. Just bring her up.”

  “But she’s a..”

  Holding my hand up in front her I try to smile. “I don’t care what she is or who she is, I just need someone to take control of my shit.”

  Dee stands. “Well I tried to warn you. But if you lose this one then you’re on your own. No-one is willing to help you out. Our churn on assistants is huge because no one wants to be promoted to your assistant. They see it as the seat next to the exit sign.” She walks out and closes my door.

  Slumping back in my chair, I sigh. Why does life have to be so difficult? All I need is someone to take control of my diary and my busy life. That’s it. How is that so hard for some people?

  A few minutes later, as I’m getting the files ready for the meeting I have in the boardroom, there’s a knock at my door. “What?” I shout, getting agitated already at another interruption.

  Dee looks around the door. “I’ve got your new assistant with me. Can I introduce them before you go to your meeting and then we can settle them in before you come back.”

  Rolling my eyes towards the ceiling I know I need to take a deep breath and try to calm some of the anger that is flowing through me right now. Deep breaths, Logan. Deep breaths. “Yes, yes. What are you waiting for? The delegates won’t wait you know. Actually, scratch that. Walk with me. Both of you.”

  She moves back outside my office and when I open the door fully I’m hit by gorgeous blue eyes. They startle me and I stop and stare at them. Then I look down and see a big grin on his face. Shit! I know this guy. What’s he doing here? “I think there’s been some mistake. The coffee shop is downstairs.” I walk past him. Seeing him here is unsettling me.

  “This is your new assistant, Logan. This is Jordan Black.” Dee is scuttling down the corridor after me.

  I know his name. I haven’t been able to think of anything else since the other night. He made me hard when he stood up to me and I could see desire in his eyes.

  “Hey,” his sweet but dirty as sin voice wraps around my heart and squeezes some life into it. I don’t stop walking and I don’t talk to him. If I ignore him long enough he’ll leave, right?

  “Logan Chase, stop right there!” His voice has changed and is now authoritative. I turn and see Dee put her hand on his arm. She clearly thinks I’m going to throw him out before he even starts.

  “What? You think you can come in here and start shouting the odds at me. Well that’s not gonna work. I’m sure we’ll pay you for the time you were here. Dee I told you it wasn’t going to be worth the induction.”

  Dee stutters. But Jordan just smiles. “I always go by my first impressions and I thought you were an arse hole the other night. Now you’ve just proved that to me.” He leans in closer. “I like a challenge though, Logan, so go to your meeting and I’ll be waiting when you get back. I’ll have your life sorted out in a week and if I don’t then you can happily fire my arse.” He has his hands on his hips and his bottom lip is sticking out. I want to take it and bite down on it so bad. Fuck!

  I’m actually speechless for the first time in my life. I don’t know what to say, so I swivel and walk down the corridor to the board meeting. With my hand on the door handle I turn to look at Jordan who stands there smiling at me and then he waves. “See you later arsehole.”

  Shaking my head I walk into the meeting room and for the life of me I don’t know what it’s about. Everyone looks at me to lead the meeting and I have to take a couple of minutes to regroup myself.

  Jordan Black is going to be the death of me.

  Chapter Four

  Jordan

  Who would have thought it? The challenging man from the other night is the one and only horrible boss.

  “I can’t believe you spoke to him like that.” Dee touches my arm so that I turn to face her. I’m still staring at where Logan was stood. His delectable arse craving my attention. This is going to be fun.

  When I look at Dee, she has a frown on her face. “I’m sorry but if he wants you gone then I’m going to have to escort you off the premises.”

  “Hang on a minute. Did you not hear what I said to him? I’m staying. If he thinks he can run me out of here just like that then he has another thing coming. He doesn’t scare me, sweetheart. I can stand up to him. He needs a challenge, the other assistants must have just rolled over for him. That won’t happen to me. Show me back to my desk and then give me a clue as to what he wants me to do and leave it with me for a week. If, after that time he wants me out, then I’ll leave. Right?”

  Dee laughs. “I’ve never known anyone stand up to him except me, and that’s only sometimes.” She reaches out to shake my hand. “I hope this works, because if he gets pissed off then my job will be on the line.”

  “Don’t worry sweetheart, I’ll challenge his arse and he won’t know what he ever did without me.”

  She chuckles and takes me back down to his office. My desk is just outside his with my own door into a glass box. The girl who was drafted in from another department this morning to do the work for him at the moment, Jess, is delighted to be able to show me what to do and where everything is. She can’t wait to get out of there. Before she leaves she hugs me. “Thank you. I was so worried about taking this on even for a couple of hours. We all know this is where they put the girls they want to get rid of but can’t. He’s a devil to work for. Demanding. Arrogant and just not nice.”

  With every word, my challenge gene kicks into play. I am so looking forward to bringing this arsehole down.

  When Jess and Dee leave I look at the diary to see what Mr. Arrogant has on. After this meeting he has another one after lunch. Lunch? I wonder what he likes to eat. I ring Jess and ask her. She isn’t
sure. Walking out of my office I grab the closest person and ask them if they know what he gets for lunch.

  “I’m not sure. His assistant, or whoever is helping usually gets him some food from The Quill and Pen next door.”

  “Thanks, that’s really helpful. I’m sure his order is difficult, just like him so they’ll know who he is. I’ll ring down to them and ask them to deliver it up to me. Thanks again.”

  Back in my office I google the number for the Quill and Pen and when someone answers I explain who I am. “Hey, I’m Jordan and I’m Mr. Chance’s new assistant.”

  The person on the other end of the phone laughs. “I don’t need your name because you won’t be here long, but how can I help you?”

  “Oh I think I’ll be here a while. I don’t intend letting that arrogant man push me out. I want to know what does he have for lunch? He’s in a meeting and I want to have it ready for him before he comes out.”

  “Let’s see it’s Friday, right? He always has a prawn mayo on lettuce and granary bread on a Friday. I have the list down here for him if you want me to leave you a copy with his sandwich.”

  “Thanks. Can you get it sent up to me, please? I’m trying to familiarise myself with how he works.”

  “Of course we can. I think the other assistants used to like coming down to collect it just to get out from under his glare.”

  “I’m sure they did, but I’ve a lot of work to get done before he finishes his meeting. Thank you for your help.” I hang up.

  Okay, that’s the first job out of the way. I check the diary again and see it’s a manual book. How antiquated. I set up a shared calendar with him and go into his room to check his laptop to make sure it’s working. Sitting at his desk I get to see what he looks at all day. Nothing. The wall opposite his desk is the window into the main office, but he has the blinds closed. I’m not having that. I find the cord and slowly pull the blinds back, letting lots of light into his otherwise dark office. The staff outside turn to watch me and some of them snigger. They probably think that I’m getting my arse fired before the day is out. Little do they know that he can fire me however many times, but I am not leaving until next Friday. A week after I start. Just like I promised.

  The next job I do is to find the files for the three meetings he has this afternoon. Who packs his meetings that tightly together? When does he have time to work on the content of the meetings? In the filing cabinet I find the files. I prepare each one into little packs. They contact the file for the project; a notepad and pen (just in case); some information on the delegates from google and a copy of his diary for the next couple of weeks so that he can schedule meetings straight away instead of this back and forth that happens with these meetings.

  After setting those on his desk with a header in the front of each with the date, time and nature of the meeting and all the delegate names, I go back to my desk to start checking email.

  God what a mess! It’s no wonder the assistants were always stressed out. Everything is all over the place. After glancing through the emails I see there are common threads to them all and start creating folders to put them into. This means that what is in the inbox is only the active emails waiting for some action. I use colour coded flags to tell me what each email is about at a glance. It’s a piece of piss, not sure why they haven’t done it before.

  Looking at the clock I see he’s due to be finishing his meeting in the next ten minutes and just as I’m standing up from my chair someone knocks on my door. Opening it I see someone with a plate with the prawn mayo open sandwich. “Hey mate, thanks for bringing it up. I’ll ring down every morning and order. Can you deliver every day?”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  “Great.” I tip him a couple of quid from my own pocket and he leaves. Leaving my door open, I go into his office. He has a couch and table on the wall adjacent to his desk. I put his plate down, the knife and fork, just in case he’s too posh to pick it up and grab him a glass for his sparkling water, which they also sent up. I leave a napkin next to it all with the folder for his first meeting next to it so that he can brush up on what that’s about. Standing back I admire my handiwork. Yep he’s going to be pissed. I bet he doesn’t like anyone intruding on his space. I don’t care. That’s what I’m here to do and if it means intruding then that’s what I’ll be doing.

  Back at my own desk I hear everyone outside the office going quiet. Guess that means he’s on his way back then.

  When he walks in, I catch my breath. He’s so beautiful he makes me want to weep. I’m so attracted to this arsehole and it kills me.

  “You. What the fuck are you still doing here?” He walks straight past me and into his office, slamming the door as he walks away.

  Oh yeah, Mr. Arsehole is out to play. I open his door and walk in, leaving the door open.

  “I think we need to set some ground rules.” I stand with my hands on my hips. “This is going to happen differently to your other assistants. I won’t lay down and let you walk all over me. No way. Let’s start again.”

  He stares at me then glances away when he spots his lunch waiting for him. “What’s that?”

  “That’s your lunch. Prawn mayo open on granary bread with lettuce and a sparkling water. You’re favourite I understand.”

  He looks bewildered. Perfect. Score one to me. He walks over to his lunch, sits down and then looks up at me. “Thanks.” He doesn’t say any more and I don’t expect him to. I didn’t even expect him to say thanks to be honest.

  I watch him eating for a minute or two. “Right while you’ve got your mouth full, I’m going to talk.” Fuck. I can’t believe I said that. I can feel my blush rushing over my face. He stops chewing and looks at me. His eyebrows pop up and I think he’s going to say something, but he just shakes his head and carries on chewing.

  “I’ve left the packet for your next meeting next to your food so you can be reading through it as you eat. On your desk are the packets for the next two meetings. I’ve put in what I think you need but I can change that when I’ve been here longer and know what you need. I’ve changed the diary system so it’s on line. This means that you can schedule meetings away from your desk straight from your phone. If you give me your phone I’ll download the app for you. It’s linked to your laptop and my computer so far. I’ll have it on my phone too just in case.”

  He looks up at me. “You’ve done all of this in..” he looks down at his watch, “in one and a half hours? None of my assistants did anything when I was at meetings.”

  “That’s because you didn’t tell them what you need. I had to make that decision myself while you were gone. I’m assuming you’ll have some work for me from your last meeting to keep me occupied while you’re at your next meeting.”

  “Do you want to come with me?” He surprises me. I didn’t expect him to invite me. “Actually, no forget it.” He’s flustered. Interesting.

  “I’d love to come with you.” I wink at him. He blushes. Fuck me that’s hot. “It would give me an idea of what happens and what kind of things I need to have ready for you.”

  “Why? Why are you doing this?”

  “To be honest I need a job and I like a challenge. You set me one the other night when you left your business associates behind so you could go fuck your woman. I bet I was right though. I bet they did business with you but were hungover as hell.”

  He chuckles. “You could say that. They were enthusiastic about the business after such a good night. I don’t know what you did, but it worked.”

  “Exactly. I’m good at what I do, Logan. You just have to give me a chance. As I said all I need is a week to know whether we’re going to be a good fit or not.”

  “A week. You really think you’ll figure me out in a week and know what I want.”

  I laugh. “Hell, yeah. I bet by tonight I’ll have you sussed out already. I just want the week to be perfect for you and you won’t be able to get rid of me.” I turn my back on him and sashay out to my desk, leaving the door ope
n between us. I can feel the heat of his stare on my back.

  It’s only about two minutes later that I hear him yell, “Jordan, what the fuck?”

  Rolling my eyes, I walk in to find him pulling the cords on his blinds. “Who said you could open these? I don’t like them being open. It feels like I’m in a goldfish bowl.”

  “Don’t be an arse, Logan. You hide yourself away from everyone and they’re all scared of you.”

  “So they should be. I pay their wages.”

  I pull him away from the cord and push him back over to the seat. To compromise I pull them halfway down to let some light into his office. “We can work on that.” Once again I walk out to my desk.

  About fifteen minutes before his next meeting I walk back into his office. He’s finished eating and is just tidying up his plate and cutlery. “Here, I’ll do that.” I take them from him and accidentally grab his hand. My eyes jump to his. The electricity is shooting through my body. My reaction to him is no surprise following the other night. But he’s straight. He went home with a woman that night. He always dates women. I saw that when I googled him that night when I got home. But something about the way he looks at me while I have his hand in mine, tells me I might be wrong. If that’s the case then that’s a gamechanger.

  Chapter Five

  Logan

  Fuck, what was that when he took my hand? I felt like I was being tazed. I can’t believe how my body reacts to him. It’s on high alert every time he’s near me and all I want to do is put my hand over his mouth to shut him up, bend him over my desk and fuck his arse senseless. Shit, my cock is stirring. I hope he doesn’t notice I’ve got a semi.

  Jordan has done more for me in a couple of hours than any assistant has ever done for me. Already I can feel the stress draining out of me. Although a fuck would definitely take the stress away. Stop thinking like that Logan. It won’t get you anywhere.