The Personal Assistant Read online

  Romance:

  The Personal Assistant

  Penny Ward

  Romance: The Personal Assistant

  Penny Ward

  Copyright © 2015

  Published by Run Free Publishing

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Other titles by bestselling author Penny Ward:

  Romance: The Billionaire’s Pleasure

  Romance: Hired

  Romance: Stepbrother Lust

  Romance: Owned

  Romance: Her Fighter

  Romance: The Billionaire’s Contract

  The Personal Assistant

  Penny Ward

  Chapter 1

  “No!”

  He’s shouting again.

  “This is not good enough!”

  He sounds angry.

  “This is not acceptable!”

  Really angry.

  “You are pathetic!”

  And I love it when he is angry…

  I hear Caleb throw something against the wall and decide it is time to enter the room. Slowly, I creep into the dining room, hovering around the edges. The room is large and I am easily able to disappear in the shadows.

  “And don’t come back tomorrow! You’re fired!” Caleb rages. “Fired!”

  As I pick up a plate from the dining table, Caleb notices me.

  “Emma, sorry. I didn’t know you were still here.”

  “Is everything ok?” I ask innocently.

  “No, Emma, it’s not. I have just been served under-cooked chicken from the new chef. Under-cooked chicken, Emma. That’s not good enough. That could have given me food poisoning.”

  “You didn’t have to fire him. You could have given him a second chance.”

  “Under-cooked chicken, Emma.”

  “Still. It’s a pressure job cooking for the famous Caleb Hawksley. The poor guy would have been very nervous on his first night. He’s only made one mistake.”

  “Emma, the chicken was still pink on the inside. I barely think the chicken even hit the pan. That’s not good enough. Not for the amount I am paying him… or any chef for that matter. Why am I hiring a chef that can’t even cook chicken? I could have done a better job than he did.”

  “I highly doubt that,” I smile. “You wouldn’t even know where the kitchen is.”

  Caleb stares at me with a blank face. He wants to be angry with me. He wants to shout at me for such a harsh comment.

  But the smile cracks through his tough exterior, “Only you could say that to me and get away with it, Emma.”

  I return his smile. “Now, do you want a sandwich? I can make one for you.”

  He smiles again and I feel the anger disappear from the room, “You know me better than I know myself, Emma.”

  “Yes, I do.”

  But I want to know you better, Caleb Hawksley.

  I want to know you so much better…

  Chapter 2

  There he goes again.

  On his way to spend a fortune on champagne for women he barely knows, as if money is nothing and life is one long, inconsequential party.

  "Goodbye Emma," says Caleb in his silky smooth deep voice.

  Caleb is my employer, looking too gorgeous in his tailored navy suit and crisp white shirt.

  "Don't wake me when you get in," I say, waving and smiling, knowing that if he's alone when he returns, he will wake me for conversation and cocoa in the kitchen. I love those midnight moments together; the easy smiles, the occasional lingering glance he thinks I don't see, which never leads to the places I need them to.

  Not yet anyway.

  Caleb drives away in his silver Aston Martin without a care in the world, and I tell myself for the millionth time to loathe him for how he chooses to live his life, for his dislike of all things working class, for not wanting me the way I want him, but I know him too well for that.

  He's a good man with a kind heart, though he does love to spoil himself like a child in a sweetshop a little too often.

  Anyway, I couldn't loathe the man for whom I've longed forever.

  The man I still dare to hope will one day see me as more than Little Em who grew up with him and became his housekeeper. Until that day, I keep his house in order and his shirts clean, fearing the day he falls in love, because it will be the end of me.

  Despite being pleased with what nature gave me, I'm not glamorous or sophisticated like the many women he brings back for a night here, a night there. Those tittering women who offer their bodies and leave Chanel lipstick smeared over his linen shirts for me to remove. They are sophisticated, perfectly styled, wealthy, and I know I should envy them all, but I don't.

  Why would I envy them when in normal, everyday ways he is mine to care for?

  In my dreams he is mine to enjoy, and in my heart, he is just mine.

  My mother loved being the housekeeper for Caleb and his parents while I was a growing girl.

  I loved our accommodation in the grounds, and the huge yards where they let me play. I lived with my mother, the Hawksley family housekeeper, and my father, their limo driver, on their property in the Hamptons. Our family was not full of money, but that never stopped me.

  It wasn’t the money that I loved anyway.

  It was the freedom.

  The freedom to wander and play and explore.

  I spent a lot of my younger years with Caleb, who is five years older than I. His parents were never around, and a lot of the time, it was up to my mother to care for him. I loved the horse-riding, the wandering and quiet out there.

  But mostly, especially from my thirteenth birthday, I loved spending time with Caleb, and when puberty hit, I fantasized about him being the one to release the full power of my lust and reveling in it.

  Shame Caleb has no idea what fireworks we might light between my sheets.

  Maybe one day I'll show him.

  Maybe, one day, we will connect…

  Chapter 3

  When I turned eighteen, I was offered a job to be Caleb’s housekeeper in his inner-city $50 million penthouse apartment. I have my own bedroom and quarters in the three level penthouse, and with my mother's training, I learned to do this job blindfolded.

  It has now been three years since I’ve started this job – and I couldn’t be happier.

  I have my close friends that I hang out with once or twice a week, but apart from them, this job is my life.

  After attending to my many duties as housekeeper all morning, I decide to take a well-earned rest around lunchtime. Living in the house I clean and organize means I'm always on call.

  Unless Caleb—my sole employer since his father died and mother moved on to her fourth husband—is out of the penthouse, of course.

  Even then, he could call at any moment and order me to organize a party for twenty, including food. Experience—literally years of it—tells me Caleb will be gone until the early hours. While he manages a billion-dollar investment company during the day, he is still able to fit in hours of partying most nights.

  I'll need to get a few hours’ sleep before he returns because there could be requests for one thing or another later, for him or his guests.

  Peachy bubbles surround me and soothe tired muscles.

  Looking after a young playboy can keep a girl busy, but this girl would never complain. I was born into domestic service just as my mother and father were before me. My school friends couldn't understand why I didn't want to leave to get my own place or a different job.
They don't understand how much I love my job, my home, and my life.

  We've had the good fortune to serve a big-hearted family, although Caleb's mother was a fickle one. As a live-in staff member, I'm surrounded by luxury and live in the best location in the city. I live in the heart of the action.

  All I do for it is take care of my employer, and there's a definite feel-good factor about caring for others.

  Mom and Dad managed to use their income to buy a place of their own, and Caleb gave her a huge leaving bonus, which helped heaps.

  He's such a generous man.

  The peach foam infuses the bathroom, and breathing it in, I imagine his mouth around my nipple and my fingers search beneath the bubbles—like a surrogate tongue—and apply firm and precise strokes.

  Legs spread wide I sigh, stroking my clit, and racing towards my climax…"Ah."

  "Emma, you there?"

  "Damn," I whisper, sitting up sharply.

  No. Did he hear me?

  "Emma?" Caleb's deep voice booms down the hallway leading to my quarters and the thrill of it nearly sends me over the edge.

  "Emma?" The door handle turns and my body freezes, apart from the hand between my legs, which joins the other one in grabbing the side of the bathtub.

  When he bursts in, I force myself not to cover my breasts or close my legs, willing him to see my breasts, the triangle of hair above my sex.

  Willing him to want me.

  Yes.

  Look at me.

  I am right here.

  His gaze darkens and lingers on my breasts, "Ah," his eyes refuse to stop looking even though he strains to turn his head, "Sorry to disturb your bath."

  After the initial thrill of being seen is gone, embarrassment swoops in and the confidence I used to exhibit my body shrivels along with my open posture.

  "Oh, Caleb, what is it?" I cover myself as best I can, wishing I could reach the towel. "I thought you wouldn't be back for hours."

  He turns his head away fully now, while I stand to grab the bath towel off the rail and wrap it around myself.

  "Don't be angry with me," he says, holding out his hand to help me out of the bath. "It's just…I brought a date home and she must have taken something before she left the bar. She's being sick in the kitchen."

  So much for taking a break.

  "What is with your taste in women?" I let go of his hand and walk into my bedroom, Caleb on my heels. "They either starve themselves to stay thin, or snort crap up their $1,000 noses."

  "Yeah, yeah." He crosses his arms over his chest, and the curve of his biceps is not lost on me. "They can't all be as perfect as you, now can they?"

  There's a momentary standoff.

  "Can you clean her up or not?"

  "It's my job. Of course I can."

  "Good. And make sure she gets home. I can't deal with her bullshit right now. I don’t want her to still be here in the morning."

  As gorgeous and generous as he has always been, Caleb can be such a spoiled brat.

  And I can be a little abrasive with him, but we have an understanding.

  He takes it because he knows I'm right.

  "You can't deal with it?" my voice raises an octave, "Wait a minute, I am the twenty-one year old housekeeper, and you are the twenty-six-old investor, right? I didn't get us mixed up, did I?"

  "Don't be mad with me."

  He flutters his thick black eyelashes, and I want to kiss him and scream at him all at once.

  "You can be such a child, Caleb."

  "Hey," he frowns when I throw a cushion at him. "Yes, but let's not forget I am still the employer in this conversation." He catches my eye and winks, "So you better quit with the attitude."

  A quick hand gesture shoos him out of my bedroom, but he hesitates, eyes resting on the swell of my cleavage.

  "If you let me get some clothes on, I'll go and deal with your mess. I can't very well help the poor girl while I’m dripping on the floor in a wet towel."

  He licks his lips, assessing my semi-nakedness, "Shame."

  Damn him for flirting with me knowing he's way out of my league.

  Ah, but I do so love the fantasy.

  "Oh yeah?" I hope he is finally going to see me as more than the girl he's been flirting with since she turned sixteen.

  "Aw…" he tilts his head and squeezes my bare upper arm, "What would I do without my Little Em?"

  My heart plummets.

  Yet again, he doesn't take the bait.

  Damn.

  Chapter 4

  After clearing up the sick and organizing a cab for the young woman Caleb brought home, I pour myself a long glass of vodka and soda with four ice cubes and a slice of lime.

  It's twelve thirty in the morning and I'm exhausted. "Time to relax."

  Just before I turn go downstairs to my quarters, I glimpse Caleb staring silently from the staircase leading to the first floor where all his rooms are.

  "Do you need something, Caleb? I'm just off to bed."

  "Nope, just wondered if you'd like to catch up. It can wait."

  "Catch up? I know what this is, you're bored because your entertainment for the evening is on her way home in a cab."

  He shrugs and smirks irresistibly.

  "You can come to my room if you like,” I state. “I was only going to read for a while before I collapse in a heap."

  "Sounds great." Caleb runs down the stairs and joins me on route to my room wearing a vest, joggers, and a huge grin.

  When I enter my room, I rest my drink on the bedside table and go to the en-suite bathroom he'd disturbed me in earlier, to change out of my maid's uniform into a pair of runners and a sweatshirt.

  I brush my teeth, pinch my cheeks, and let my hair fall down my back in seductive waves.

  There's no getting away from how hot he makes me.

  When I leave the bathroom, Caleb's reclined on my bed and is now flicking through the latest in a long line of romantic paperbacks I've been reading lately.

  "Hey, don't lose my spot."

  Caleb reads from my book sarcastically, "She enjoyed how Hugo's fingers toyed with her nipples while he bent her over the bathroom basin and fucked her like his life depended on it."

  Blood burns my cheeks, "Yes," I snigger, "I so need to catch up on what happens after they get sticky."

  Jumping on the bed next to him, we laugh with one another, like we have a million times before.

  "I admire your efforts to expand your mind with challenging literature," he reads on a little silently. "Oh, this sounds a little hard-core.”

  “It’s romance – not hard core.”

  “What ever happened to your first love, Little Em?"

  “You?” I say playfully.

  "Sci-fi," Caleb says. "You used to love that stuff."

  "Oh yeah. I still read those books and watch those programs and movies. But hey, I'm not going to lie, I have other appetites too now. Doubt you've noticed. Why would you notice I no longer go to school or wear training bras?"

  His gaze moves directly to my bust, "Can't really tell in your oversized sweatshirt but…yeah," he fidgets, and I'm sure he blushes. "I noticed."

  We're so close on the bed I want to lean in and kiss him and for him to lean me over the bathroom basin and fuck me like the hero does in my book.

  I grab my drink and take a sip to help my temperature cool.

  His gaze reaches out to touch my face, and I want to return it.

  When I do, nervously, I find him staring at me. "Um, you want to share or should I go get you something to drink?"

  He clears his throat, "Think I've bothered you enough for one day. I'll take a sip of yours though, if…"

  I offer him my glass, and the ice cubes tap against the inside of it as my hand shakes.

  "Thanks," after a sip, he screws up his face. "Yuk, what did you give me?"

  And the tension dissipates.

  "Vodka."

  "I love vodka, but what brand is this? Is this even legal?"

 
"The kind I can afford. It's good, what's wrong with it?"

  "You need Chase or Grey Goose. I'll get you some of mine. Yours is toxic." He runs off and returns a few minutes later with a jug of vodka on ice with soda and two fresh glasses.

  "Here, try this," he says, enthusiasm lighting up his face.

  I do as he asks, pouring two glasses and taking a cautious sip of mine.

  "Wow, it's such a clean, fresh flavor. You can hardly taste alcohol, only…well, vodka I guess."

  "See, you get what you pay for; I've always said as much."

  "Sometimes. Or you get ripped off - I’ve always say as much."

  "Funny," he smirks. "Only I never get ripped off. I pay for the best and get the best. Simple."

  "Price isn't always the best indicator of quality. Remember the classy lady you brought home with you?"

  I snort and he elbows me in the ribs, but it doesn't hurt, "She wasn't for sale."

  "Bet you spent a pretty penny on her before she climbed into your Aston Martin though."

  "Are you suggesting she wouldn't be interested if I was poor?" he laughs, knowing the answer, but says, "Anyway, I'm not talking about people, I'm talking about places, food, entertainment, customer service, products. Money gets you the best."

  "My local Chinese restaurant offers tasty take-out food at a reasonable price, and they're all friendly in there. It's my absolute favorite."

  "That’s disgusting, Em. I'd never eat from one of those takeaway restaurants places. They seem… dirty.”

  “No way. The atmosphere is what makes a place. And Yu Lin’s Chinese restaurant is the best. It’s the place all my friends and I go every week.”

  “To order the same rice dish every time?”

  “No way. I have been going there with my best friends for the past three years, once a week, and I still haven’t tried everything on the menu.”

  He shakes his head, “Takeaway restaurants just don’t do it for me.”

  “Have you ever even been in one?”