Was she complete and utter trash that her curiosity about sex had turned into a raging obsession? She longed to know why people were willing to sacrifice their dignity or their marriages — even their livelihood! — for sex. Once, she’d touched herself down there but even as it had been pleasurable, afterwards she’d been swamped by feelings of shame and humiliation for being so wanton as to give into the curiosity about something that ought to be saved for marriage.
But truthfully, even as she hoped to find a man to give her treasure, she knew with a certainty, the man who plucked her cherry would likely not look like Vince or Nolan Buchanan.
Her gaze strayed to Gilbert, another accountant in their department. The man was nice enough with a pleasant smile but his hands were a bit knobbish, which suited his thin frame, she supposed, and he was most certainly going bald, even though he tried to hide it (unsuccessfully) with a comb-over. To compound matters, Gilbert had asked her out on a date that she hadn’t agreed to yet but she knew she probably would. She withheld a sigh. Likely, a man like Gilbert would be the one to discover what was hidden beneath her boring beige panties. It wasn’t that she was hung up on appearances as such, but she wanted passion and wild debauchery at some level in her love life and she knew without looking too hard, that Gilbert wasn’t the wild man she sought.
Suddenly, Nolan’s door opened and the blonde walked out, her eyes were wet and she was storming from the building as if her ass was on fire.
Penny averted her eyes and pretended to focus on her work but her mind was conjuring all kinds of scenarios that were far more interesting than the balance sheets she was supposed to be formulating. Nolan must’ve ended it with Beautiful Blonde. Not surprising, Penny thought, speculating. Nolan seemed to have an issue with commitment. The bevy of beauties came and went but never stayed. She straightened as Nolan appeared at the door, his gaze following the angry blonde as if contemplating chasing after her. But as Penny watched, holding her breath at the mini drama, she was secretly relieved when he simply watched her go. Nolan’s gaze tangled with Penny’s and the breath she’d been holding evaporated as her lungs simply ceased to work. Nolan was…electric. That was the only word to describe him. He was different from Vince in that he was a dirty blonde but he had that same intensity as his brother that made Penny weak in the knees every time. She may have made a short squeak of alarm at being caught so brazenly staring at him because Nolan’s stare narrowed before returning to his office and closing the door. Penny gasped in dismay. How stupid of her to openly stare at her boss like that. Had she made him uncomfortable? Had she appeared weird? Probably no weirder than when Vince had tried to talk with her and she’d babbled like a talking monkey. She dropped her head into her hands and groaned. Why couldn’t she just find a nice, normal boyfriend to keep her thoughts occupied so she could stop caring so much about the Buchanan brothers and their various escapades? She dragged her pile of spreadsheets toward her with a miserable frown and resigned herself to working late and putting the Buchanans out of her head for the night.
That Saturday, Penny found herself summoned to the Buchanans’ on an urgent errand by her supervisor. The summons itself wasn’t shocking, as George was always using Penny as his personal assistant in a blatant abuse of power, but when George admitted that Vince had asked for her specifically, her jaw dropped. “Why me?” she’d asked.
“I don’t know,” George answered, his tone nervous. “But you’ll call me if they start asking questions, right?”
“Questions about what?” Penny asked, confused.
“Just…I don’t know…like how I run the department and such. You’ll call, right?”
Penny almost giggled. George was probably dropping a load in his pants right about now and she wasn’t above enjoying his fear just a little because he deserved it. If anyone should be running that department, it was Gilbert and not George but Gilbert was non-confrontational and George was a bully. “Sure,” Penny lied. “But I’m sure it’s nothing. Don’t worry.”
“Right, of course,” George said, but his voice held a subtle shake, which made Penny curious as to what George was really afraid of. Maybe George was doing stuff he shouldn’t with company money. Wouldn’t surprise Penny in the least. George was a pig who liked to play in other people’s pigpen. And when Penny called him a pig…she was being generous to him and unfair to the pig. “You know the address?” he asked.
“Of course,” she murmured. The Buchanans owned a beautiful estate outside of town that technically belonged to their grandfather but he was in a nursing home and had already left everything to his grandsons in his living will. “I’d better get going. They want me there by eight.”
She disconnected with George and hurriedly went to her closet. Thank God, she’d shaved her legs and armpits that morning and on a whim, had actually trimmed up the hair around her lady parts. Just thinking about it, made her blush so she returned to her wardrobe. What should she wear? Would it matter? Likely, neither men would look twice at her any more than they’d spend time taking a second look at a utilitarian lamp or desk. She bit her lip and stared at her clothes, wishing heartily that she’d been more daring in her shopping choices. Not a single red or racy thing in there, she thought unhappily. Oh, so what? It wasn’t as if wearing something daring would suddenly cause them to overlook her bountiful curves to ravish her right there in the foyer of their grand mansion. A delicious shiver danced along her spine at the very idea. Did that actually happen to people? God, she hoped so. She dearly wanted to be ravished at least once in her life. She grabbed the least conservative blouse she owned and paired it with a pair of jeans she’d reserved for going out with friends and after dabbing a little make-up here and there, she headed out.
The Buchanan mansion was like something out of a movie — as in perfect and imposing – and for a long moment Penny simply stared at the sprawling behemoth of a house, wondering how in the hell they didn’t get lost just trying to find their way to the bathroom at night. Snapping her mouth shut when she realized it had gaped, she grabbed her business satchel that held her supplies (paper, computer, pen, etc.) and knocked on the massive double oak door with her heart in her mouth.
To her surprise, Vince answered the door himself when she’d been expecting a servant. “Ah, come on in, Miss McDaniel,” he said, greeting her far more warmly than she would’ve imagined for a mere employee such as herself. She smiled nervously and followed him into the house. “We’re so glad you could come. I’m sorry to have pulled you away from your weekend but this couldn’t wait.”