Dirty Secret: A BWWM Office Romance Read online

  Emer came to console her. “It’s okay,” she said, patting Skye on the shoulder. “Don’t let it weigh you down. Just be very careful next time. Our boss doesn’t tolerate mistakes.”

  Skye nodded amidst sobs.

  Chapter Three

  The door swung open, startling the senior staff of FinCorp Inc. who were eagerly anticipating Finn’s arrival. The senior staff rose to their feet on seeing the man they had been waiting for.

  “My apologies for being late,” Finn said.

  His staff chorused their acceptance and sat after him.

  “Good morning ladies and gentlemen,” Finn began. “Thank you for making time to attend this impromptu meeting.”

  “You’re welcome,” Rory Shane, his general manager replied on behalf of the staff.

  “I don’t intend to take much of your time,” Finn said, looking round the faces of the staff. “I only want us to discuss the strategies to be put in place for the upcoming merger.” He threw an expectant look at Rory.

  “Mr. Shane, what do you have for us?”

  Rory Shane cleared his throat. “I have been in touch with the representatives of Mevi Global and they still want to make more assessments of FinCorp Inc. before taking a decision.”

  “More assessments?” Finn asked, his voice rose as his eyebrows narrowed towards his nostrils. “What kind of assessments do they want to make, other than the ones that they have made so far?”

  Rory waited for him to calm down a bit before replying. “Sir, I got an insider hint on exactly what they are looking out for.”

  Finn’s face brightened up. “Really?”

  Rory nodded.

  “Go ahead and spill the beans then.”

  “Apart from every other statutory requirement which we have fully met, they are also looking out for empathetic leadership.”

  The staff chuckled.

  “Empathetic leadership,” Finn repeated with a sneer. “What does that even mean?”

  “You see,” Rory began his explanation. “Apart from being a distressed multimillion dollar company that’s in the business of producing consumer goods for her steaming Irish market, the leadership of Mevi Global is passionate about serving humanity. This explains why their core values are service, integrity and empathy.”

  Finn listened to his staff take turns to give their ideas on how to go about a successful merging process. The meeting went on for the next hour after which Finn called it a day.

  Finn flipped through the pages of the reports that his chief procurement officer had submitted the previous day. Still unable to comprehend what the young man had written about the newly procured raw materials even after he had called to explain things, he threw the files at the far end of his reading desk.

  Leaning on his desk in his large library, his thoughts wandered away from the figures on the flung reports to his life over the past eighteen years. The date nights, the movie dates, the expensive vacations, the shopping sprees, the spar treats and the drinking sprees – activities all designed to get his mind off that cold night – couldn’t take the darkness and emptiness away. The darkness was still as overwhelming and the vacuum still as wide as it was when Riona left.

  Still feeling drained, he dragged himself from his chair to the corner of his library where his most prized possession lay. He reached out for the square shaped item, his hands gripping firmly to its pink frame and his eyes caressing her soft dimples. Her blue eyes caught his attention, just as it had done during their freshman year, when she came to sit beside him in the lecture theatre. Still holding firmly to the portrait, he closed his eyes. There in the dark, she laid on her bed, beaming a thin smile despite her failing health, her pale pink lips still full of assurances of her undying love.

  “Stay with me, will you?” The desperate Finn had asked, holding tightly to her right hand while clutching three-year-old Aine to his side.

  “I’m right here,” she had replied calmly. “I will always be right beside…” And then there was still silence accompanied by complete darkness.

  And more complete darkness.

  “Fuck!” Finn said, clutching the small portrait to his chest as he leaned against the wall. “You lied, Riona. You fucking lied to me.”

  He stopped as memories of their wedding vows flashed through his mind. Then, he voiced out his disappointment. “The deal was forever. We were supposed to stay together forever and then, you left…”

  His heart ached the more as he thought of how Riona had quickly answered death’s impromptu call. Suddenly, he returned the portrait to its position on the wall and went back to his chair.

  “I guess this is it…This is my destiny.”

  He leaned back on his chair to go over the previous day’s events, an act that he wasn’t accustomed to. Suddenly, images of the knocked down teacup, of Skye’s cleaning frenzy and most weirdly, her curves flashed through his mind. His overstretched mind settled on the latter. He smiled; his first smile upon returning from work.

  Don’t even go there.

  Finn smiled again, rubbing his thumbs across his first fingers in response to his rising urge. But his mind wouldn’t stop playing the guilty game with him.

  She’s your daughter’s mate, damn it.

  “That makes it more interesting.”

  What if she says no?

  “She won’t. She can’t say no to the offer I have for her, for us.”

  With that, he shut off his mind and went ahead to call his attorney to prepare him two non-disclosure agreements.

  Chapter Four

  Skye halted in front of Finn’s door to straighten her dress and confirm if the files she had with her were well arranged. Memories of the incident that happened on her first day at work were still fresh in her mind.

  Satisfied with the job she had done, she knocked once.

  “Come in,” Finn’s voice echoed from within.

  Skye turned the doorknob clockwise and pushed open the door, letting the morning sunrays into Finn’s office. Once in, she shut the door as quickly as she opened it and walked briskly to Finn’s table.

  “Here are the files you requested,” she said, gently pushing them to him.

  Finn did a quick scan of the files. Then, he stopped and looked up at her. “Where is the document on the progress of our negotiations with Mervi Global?”

  Skye hesitated. Suddenly, she remembered where the secretary had filed the document. “It’s in your personal cabinet, sir.”

  Finn pressed a secret code on his phone and the lock on the cabinet clicked.

  “Get the document immediately.”

  “Yes sir,” she replied.

  Finn went back to looking at the files she brought. Almost five minutes later, Skye was yet to bring out the files. Finn looked to see what was keeping her.

  Something about her backside as she searched the cabinet for the documents caught his attention. His eyes traveled the full length of her back, starting from her neatly packed hair to her slender shoulders, then to her narrow waist and finally to her full hips which extended from her large buttocks.

  Her light brown dress which contrasted with the color of her skin seemed to do a lot of justice to her curves. Rather than look to see what was keeping her from bringing him the document he requested, he found his craving for her increasing.

  Finn leaned back on his chair with his eyes still fixed on Skye. Then, in a flash, he saw little Skye and Aine running round his mansion, both wearing heavy sweaters to shield their tender bodies from winter’s cold. Looking back at the grown-up lady that stood some meters away from his desk, he marveled at how fast the years had spun and how curvy and attractive the little Michigan born girl had become.

  “Here it is, sir,” Skye said, extending the file to him.

  But Finn was far away, his eyes fixed on the succulent mounds on her chest and imaginations of what features lay underneath her dress.

  “Sir,” Skye called out again, this time, more firmly. “Here is the document you requested.”


  Skye’s voice seemed like a near echo which dragged Finn from his reverie. Finn signaled her to drop the file on his desk

  A rush of adrenaline within Finn got him making an unusual request. “I could give a thousand Euros just to have a look at those,” he said, his eyes keenly fixed on her boobs.

  Skye followed his gaze. For a split second, she felt unsure of what she just heard. “Sir?”

  “You heard me, Skye. I’m willing to pay to have a look at those apples in there,” he said, pointing at her boobs.

  Skye stared on in shock silence.

  “Alright,” Finn said, seeing her unwillingness to speak. “Maybe I should make you a better offer.”

  He opened his side drawer and brought out a large brown envelop. He shoved it towards her and leaned back to watch her reaction.

  Skye took the envelop from him. The word ‘confidential’ was written in block letters on it. Still wondering what Finn was up to, Skye slowly removed the seal.

  “It’s a non-disclosure agreement, sir,” she said.

  “Read the terms,” Finn instructed.

  Skye obeyed. Minutes into reading the terms, she stopped to stare at Finn, wondering what he was up to. When, finally, she found her voice, she stuttered a question whose answer she had already read in the papers in her hands.

  “You want a…”

  Finn nodded. “Read down to the financial benefits.”

  Again, Skye obeyed. Within five minutes, she was fully aware of all the terms and benefits of the contract.

  “One hundred and twenty thousand euros for a period of three months,” she echoed.

  “That’s right,” Finn affirmed, his eyes brightening with pride.

  Skye’s mind raced past the moment to the motive behind Finn’s offer. Granted, she knew that he lusted after her just like most men that were into flesh and curves did but she never imagined that he could make an offer so dark, so amorous. Her mom’s failing health and their struggle to pay up her medical bills, given that she had no health insurance, flashed through her mind.

  Was that the reason behind this offer?

  Finn’s voice interrupted her thoughts.

  “I’m still waiting for your response,” Finn said, after what seemed like an endless moment of silence.

  “I…” she exhaled deeply. “Honestly, I don’t know what…”

  “Twenty-four hours,” Finn said abruptly.

  “What?”

  “Twenty-four hours,” he repeated. “That’s all you’ve got to think about the offer. Once that time elapses, the deal would be off. You can go back to your office.”

  “Yes sir,” Skye replied, feeling relieved.

  Skye allowed her fork to wander towards the last piece of beef, her eyes keenly fixed on the seven thousand euro bill on the dining table. Her mom, a dark skinned woman in her early forties, noticed how disturbed the bill had made her.

  She extended her left hand towards Skye’s. “Don’t let it bother you too much, Skye.” She paused to swallow the bit of brown rice that had gotten trapped somewhere in her mouth. “We’ll find a way around it. We always do.”

  Skye nodded. “But for how long? When will we ever have enough for our rent and other needs?”

  “Skye,” Mabel Foster called out. “We’ll pull through as always. I promise.”

  Skye nodded, her mind pricking her for bringing up the issue of their financial struggles at this critical moment. If there was anyone that needed to stay strong and positive, it should be her, she reasoned. Her mom didn’t deserve to be bucked with questions that would send her diseased mind into doing cartwheels.

  “How did it go?” Skye asked her mom, looking curiously into her eyes.

  Mabel Foster let out a thin smile. “Good.”

  Skye knew from the expression on Mabel’s face that her chemotherapy results weren’t as good as she portrayed them. She reached out for her hand. “I know you want to stay positive and all that, but I need to know how you’re doing.”

  Mabel smiled again, this time, more broadly. “It’s good, just that…” Mabel exhaled deeply, while trying to avoid eye contact with Skye.

  “Is it the money?” Skye asked, feeling scared.

  Mabel nodded. “But hey,” she said, holding firmly to Skye’s hand and looking into her eyes. “Don’t let it bother you. As usual, we’ll pull through this and I’ll be fine, even finer.”

  Skye looked at her mom for a while, her amazed mind wondering where she got her strength from. She exuded a high level of courage, even in the face of severe challenges. They had gone through a lot together since Skye’s father filed for bankruptcy when she was only five years old. Despite the storm, somehow, her mom had remained strong for them, working three jobs sometimes, just to make sure that they were comfortable. That was something Skye was grateful for.

  Mabel’s inner strength inspired some resolve in Skye. “Mom,” Skye called out gently. “Today is the last day we’ll have to worry about our bills, I promise.”

  Her mom nodded gently, smiling. Skye smiled back.

  Skye’s day ended with her back pressed against her bed and her mind wandering off to her last conversation with Finn. Her lips re-echoed the amount of money involved while her brain gave her a rundown of what she could do with it.

  She recalled how when she was five, her mom used to drop her off at Finn’s mansion because she couldn’t afford a nanny for her. Those cold winter nights at Finn’s mansion held memories of Finn reading them bedtime stories as they lay on Aine’s cozy bed. Finn would roll their blanket over them and kiss them goodnight, an act that always left Skye wishing that Finn were her dad.

  Sixteen years later, the same man she looked up to as a father was the same man that she was contemplating… or better put, that wanted to bang her. Quite ironic!

  Her closed eyes, the gateway to her soul, opened up to how a moment with Finn would be –spanking, blindfolding, handcuffing. She quickly opened her eyes.

  It could be fun you know. She recognized the voice. It was the still voice of her mind, reminding her of her cravings for something wild and unusual, something her ex-boyfriend was never willing to try with her.

  “Sure, it could be fun.”

  But you’d have to submit to him all three months.

  Skye reasoned that being Finn’s subordinate wouldn’t be a completely bad idea, given that she had always craved for something different and a bit wild within the past year since she broke up with her ex.

  Her last fears popped up.

  Aine.

  What if Aine found out? How would she feel knowing that her best friend of sixteen years was banging her dad? Skye shook her head.

  “She won’t find out,” she muttered, afraid that the surrounding walls might hear her. “I’d be careful.”

  Satisfied that this was an ocean worth swimming in, her eyes finally shut, and she drifted off in a restful slumber.

  Chapter Five

  The teal blue curtains swirled forward and finally rested on the window, leaving behind the refreshing feel of the morning breeze. A bit exhausted from over three hours of work, Finn reasoned that it was time to take a break.

  Pushing his chair backwards and surrendering his full weight to the sturdy chair, he found himself rolling right and left under the full glare of the slow receding morning sun. Seconds into his deep stare at the slowly darkening clouds, he found that he was neither seeing the clouds nor hearing the thunder blasts from the sky.

  His eyes opened into a time in five-year-old Aine’s playroom where he stood between Aine and Skye to stare into the sky. Occasionally, Skye would wander away from her grip to play round the room. It had taken Finn over six months of knowing Skye to realize why she always did that — she was fascinated by Aine’s numerous toys, toys that her struggling mom couldn’t afford to buy for her. Not wanting the poor girl to feel left out on the fun part of life, Finn had taken it upon himself to buy her the same toys he bought for Aine.

  Sixteen years after th
e two little girls became best friends, the girls had grown into independent ladies while Finn had drifted into becoming a lonely billionaire who wanted to bang his daughter’s best friend.

  Finn’s phone timer reminded him of the twenty-four-hour ultimatum he had given Skye. He turned back to confirm the time, only for him to stop mid-turn. His eyes moistened with desire as he stared down on the object of seduction that stood before him.

  He opened his mouth but suddenly felt a sweet tightness around his facial features, nose brushing against nose and lip pressed against lip. He didn’t bother to resist. Just when he was about getting immersed in the moment, her voice broke off.

  “Deal,” Skye said, pulling some inches away from him and dangling a ball pen in front of him.

  “You do understand the implication of the contract you’re going into?” Finn asked firmly.

  “Yes, I do.”

  “You do understand that you must be available for me any time I desire you within the next three months and on no occasion should you defy me?”

  “Yes. I do,” Skye replied.

  “Finally, you do agree that everything that happens between us stays between us and should you disclose any of our activities to a third party…”

  “…I’d be sued,” she finished firmly.

  Satisfied that she knew what she was about going into, Finn pulled out two copies of the agreement and handed them over to Skye.

  Skye signed on the documents and returned one to him.

  “You’re now mine,” Finn said, feeling heroic over his new conquest. “Go over to the couch and await further instructions.”

  “Yes sir,” she replied and did as she was instructed.

  Finn went to sit directly opposite her on the other couch. “Strip completely.”

  Skye undid one button, her eyes keenly fixed on Finn as she began to doubt the rightness of the contract. Was she wrong in accepting his offer so quickly?

  Gently, she undid the remaining buttons until her cream-colored chiffon shirt was just a light fabric hanging on her black cotton skirt. She dragged the shirt from her body and threw it towards the door. She did the same thing for every fabric on her body until she was left with just her g-string and stiletto heels. She maintained a steady, questioning gaze at Finn as she awaited further instructions.