Chapter 1
Starting a new job was always scary, and this wasn’t just any old job. I had gotten hired by the prestigious investment firm, Blake Financial.
It was only a part time deal while I finished college, but at just nineteen years old, I was one of the youngest junior analysts ever hired by the company.
I wanted to believe I had been hired because of my stellar grades, my professional demeanor, and my knowledge of the ever-shifting investment landscape. I really wanted to believe that.
But the fact was, my name was Carol Blake. As in Blake Financial. As in my step-uncle was the founder and CEO of the company, Alexander Blake. I was pretty sure that’s how I had gotten the job.
I almost didn’t apply here. Getting by on my family’s name was not something I wanted to do. I worked damn hard at everything in life, and I didn’t want people to think I was getting a free pass just because of my last name.
Still, I was qualified for this job, and Blake Financial was the best investment firm in the city. While I didn’t want to just cash in on my family connections, I also didn’t want to punish myself by taking a lower position at a lesser company.
I just had to prove my worth to my clients and all the horrible whispering going on behind my back would stop. I knew what they said about me. I saw the looks of jealousy on people’s faces in the office when I walked by.
I would shut those haters up and show them that I was more than just my last name and a pretty face. To do that, I first needed to get some clients.
I had been at the firm for over a month now and so far, I hadn’t been assigned any accounts. My uncle told me he just wanted me to understand how things worked first, but I knew he was being overprotective of me like always.
He had always kind of been like a father to me, since his brother, my stepfather, was kind of a loser. My dad was a lazy drunk who spent more time at the bar than he did at home.
It was always so crazy to me that the two men could be so different. One was a successful billionaire and the other barely had two nickels to scrape together at any given time.
My father’s life was a cautionary tale. I rejected him and everything he stood for. Instead, I used my uncle as a shining example of the kind of person I wanted to be. He was my hero, and to be honest, I’d always kind of had a crush on him.
He was as sexy as he was smart. A daily routine of jogging and lifting kept his body tight and his mind sharp. I don’t know how he found the time, to be honest. But he approached his fitness regimen the way he approached his work, with razor sharp focus and a tireless drive.
I guess the trade off was that he didn’t have any family to speak of, other than my father and I. He had given up on having a love life and a family to achieve his goals.
I couldn’t imagine doing that. All I really wanted to do was settle down and have a family. I mean, I wanted to be successful and to prove myself to the world, but I knew that was just because of where I came from. If I wasn’t so ashamed of my own family, I would be content to just find a good man and surround myself with babies.
Maybe Alexander had the same things driving him to succeed in life.
He often seemed lonely to me, locked away in his office answering endless phone calls and meeting with client after client. It was so sad to me. A man like that deserved better. He deserved a good woman and someone to go home to at the end of the day.
And it seemed like such a waste that his sexy, toned body wasn’t being used to its full potential. As strange as it sounds, I sometimes fantasized about what it would be like to make love to him. To feel his strong arms hold me close to him, to press my eager lips against his, and to be pleasured by him.
I imagined he would approach lovemaking the same way he approached everything else, with skill and ability. I bet he knew exactly how to please a woman and to make her moan with ecstasy.
I had never had sex before, but I imagined that Alexander was exactly the type of man I wanted to give my virginity to.
I was getting hot just thinking about it, sitting there in my cubicle. I wondered if I could sneak off to a quiet meeting room somewhere in the building and engage in a little bit of self love.
Or maybe I could handle things right here in my cubicle.
My hand slipped beneath my suit jacket as if it had a mind of its own. My fingers grazed across my breast, and my nipple hardened instantly at my touch. A warm tingling thrill rushed through me.
Could I really be doing this in the middle of the office where anyone could catch me?
I strained my ears for any sounds that someone was approaching, but the coast seemed clear. My hand began massaging my breast, and I had to bite my lip to stifle a moan.
I must have been hornier than I thought. My whole body seemed hot and sensitive. My thighs clenched together, putting pressure on the desperate ache throbbing between my legs. I knew what I wanted, but I didn’t dare touch myself down there while sitting in the middle of the office.
There would be no explaining that if someone came in and caught me.
But my need was overwhelming. It had been too long since I’d relieved my passionate urges. Between school and the new job, I barely had any time to myself, much less any time to take matters into my own hands, so to speak.
My skirt was just loose enough for me to press my hand down between my legs. I stroked myself through the thin material. A shudder ran through my body at the feeling. Just that light pressure of my hand was enough to make me squirm.
I imagined that my hand was Alexander’s hand. The thought of his strong, masculine hand buried between my legs got me soaking wet and hornier than I ever thought imaginable. A quiet moan escaped my lips.
“Carol,” a deep voice behind me said.
It was my uncle.
Chapter 2
I froze in my seat and my face turned beet red. Thank god I had my back to him. There was no way he could see what I had been doing. Still, I was pretty sure he had heard the sound of my moan.
“Carol, are you alright?” he asked, the concern evident in his voice.
I took a deep breath to steady myself. Then I spun my chair around, moving my hands to sit innocently in my lap as I did it. I tried to put on my most neutral expression, hoping that he couldn’t see the desire surging within me.
He looked down at me with his cool blue eyes. I could stare into those ey
es for hours.
No, I had to stop thinking like that. It was wrong. He was family, and I shouldn’t have these kind of dark desires for family. I don’t know what had come over me, but it needed to stop.
“Yes, I’m fine,” I finally said. “How are you?”
He almost seemed surprised by the question. Did nobody ever ask him how he was doing? Was he truly that alone in the world? My heart went out to him in that moment.
“I’m good,” he said. “I was just coming in to check up on you.”
“Oh, things with me are the same as ever. I’ve been reading the financial reports and I’ve come up with some investment ideas.”
He brushed my comment away. “That’s nice.”