When the beautiful woman left, Sally couldn’t quite explain the sudden sadness that filled her. It was like the light went out of the room. She also had no idea what it meant in the context of her job. Was it an automatic disqualification if one of the interviewers took one look at her and left the room?
Probably, she thought, even more downhearted. She had thought it had been going well till now.
Tyler and Kyra looked alarmed and surprised as well, so she thought that was a better sign then straight up pity. For a moment they appeared to flounder before Tyler turned to her.
“Could you give us a second, Sally?” The two stood without waiting for answer. She watched in surprise as they moved away from her, whispering in hisses that, try as she might, Sally couldn’t make out. Finally Kyra shot her a short wave before shuffling out of the room to the hallway Sally started in with the other applicants.
Tyler moved his seat around to her side of the desk before sitting down.
“Who was that?” She asked, sitting forward a little. She was glad Tyler didn’t try to act like she was stupid, giving her a warn smile instead.
“That was our infamous leader, Celeste North.”
Celeste North. Well, if that didn’t take the wind out of her sails, she didn’t know what else would. Not only was she one of the owners, but she was married and probably straight. Sally bit back a sigh. She had thought there was something there in the way her eyes had seemed to devour her. It must have been wishful thinking.
“The good news; your hired.”
Sally blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”
“The position is yours, if you still want it?” Tyler relaxed now that Sally’s mind appeared to implode. He smirked, obviously getting a kick out of Sally’s gapping mouth and shocked look. She shut her mouth with an audible click.
“But the interview?” She managed, still in disbelief. Was she being pranked right now?
Tyler flapped his hand in a way that would have made her laugh in normal circumstances. “I know my cousin, she’d have my balls if I let you leave right now.”
“What about Kyra? Where did she go?” This only happened in make believe, right?
“You helped her out when she was on the front desk,” he pointed out, “she is ready to name her first born after you.” His head tipped to the side. He looked like one of those German Shepherd puppies on her social media feed and she only just stopped herself from patting his head. “Do you not want the job anymore?”
“Yes,” she yelped, coming rapidly out of her stupor. “I just don’t think I’ve ever had an interview go quite like this before.”
Tyler laughed, patting her hand in what could only be a friendly manner. “You will get use to it. North industries does everything to the beat of it’s own drum. Now, this boring paperwork isn’t going to sign itself.”
***
When the door opened again Sally was halfway through her fourth form. Kyra returned with a smile for her, happily sinking into one of the chairs. Being pregnant appeared to be hard work.
The man who followed her in was from a cheesy romance novel cover, Sally was sure. He towered over her, and while Tyler also did, his body was lean while this man’s was pure muscle. His dark suit was obviously made for him and clung obscenely to each muscle.
He was like some sort of bronze god with his dark gold hair pulled into a pony tail at the nape of his neck and a slight hint of scruffle across his jaw. She wondered if he must be here for some form of promotional work.
The smile he gave her was panty dropping and if she wasn’t reeling from the attraction to the owner that had rocked her, she’d be all up in this guy’s grill.
Sally was not worried about who she was attracted to. It was one of the few bonuses of living in a major city like Sydney, as long as you weren’t doing anything illegal, the city barely raised an eyebrow. And she’d never really cared to air her business out there anyway.
The man stepped around the table, dark eyes only on her. He held out a hand for her to shake, which she took without thinking, entirely confused at who this man might be.
“I hear you’re my new Personal Assistant.”
Her eyes felt like they fell out of her skull. This was Hunter North. Her new boss. The husband of the woman she’d just been drooling over. Sally was sure someone had it out for her, how were all the people she now worked under this beautiful?
To make matters worse she watched, terrified, as he bent over her hand and kissed those soft lips to her knuckles. “Welcome to North Industries, Ms Smith.”
Well, if she was dreaming, Sally hoped she never woke up.
“Dude,” Tyler drawled from next to her, sounding both exasperated and amused. “I swear you and Cel are a bloody HR nightmare. I am sitting right here! Don’t pull this shit in front of me!”
Kyra was actually laughing, making Sally’s whole body flush red in embarrassment. “Don’t go giving him ideas on what to do when you’re not here.”
“You all live to make my job harder,” Tyler huffed.
Hunter chuckled, straightening, but not letting go of Sally’s hand. She gulped at his cheeky smile. How was she going to survive?
“Hunter North,” he finally introduced himself. “I’m sorry my wife was detained elsewhere. She was looking forward to meeting you.”
He was lying, she realised. It was something she’d always been able to tell, when someone was lying, but more interestingly where in the conversation they were fudging the truth.
What made this statement interesting to her was that he was only bending the truth when it came to where Mrs North had gone. The fact that she was excited to meet her was true. That made the arousal she had managed to squash come back ten fold.
She clenched her thighs together, trying to settle her wayward hormones. Married woman, this was a married woman she was thinking about. A woman who, to all intensive purposes, was going to pay her mighty fine salary. A crush was a good way to get her fired if she wasn’t careful.
Her customer service smile came in handy in soul destroying moments like these.
“I look forward to meeting Mrs North when she has time,” she slipped her hand from his, half returning to the form she had been filling out. “I will be starting once my weeks’ notice has finished with my current employment.”
“It’s required that you start tomorrow.”
It was a smooth lie, but even without her freaky lie detector powers the startled looks Tyler and Kyra gave him would have tipped Sally off. She gave him a sceptical look.
“It says in the last page I signed I’m entitled to up to two weeks to complete other employment before I start,” she responded tentivly. “I have shifts to complete this week.”
“I will talk with your boss, you will start tomorrow morning.”
Sally had spent a lot of time with people throughout her life who were use to getting their way. Usually to get through to them with little conflict she’d edge around them, they had to think that it was an idea they had themselves to get what you wanted. But just looking at Hunter she knew she wouldn’t be able to get around him on this.
With most people it was arrogant or annoying, but with Hunter it was just how it was going to happen. She had no doubt if she stuck her heel in he’d just ensure she thought it had been her idea by the end of the argument. She didn’t know how she felt about someone turning her own tricks against her, so she just nodded.
“Then I will see you tomorrow at 8am?”
“Please don’t wear heels,” he added, his eyes dragging down her body and making her shiver. His smirk was rakish and Sally found herself wondering all sorts of thing. “We like to get our hands dirty here at North Industries and I’d rather you didn’t hurt your pretty feet.”
“DUDE!” Tyler angry hissed, “HR! Right in the room!”
Hunter just laughed as he left the room, making Sally squirm at the promising sound.
What had she gotten herself into?
***
Author's Note: Two updates in a row! I'm on fire!
If you get a chance please read 'The Beta's Daughter' by Jemima Forrester. It is amazing balls!
Celeste was glad she’d decided to take a run before trying to head back to try and do work. Even though she couldn’t get out of the city, parts of it were still green enough for her. Coupled with some decent headphones she was able to zone out and clear her head.Being away from Sally’s scent helped too.One day soon she would take all three of them out of the city, somewhere on a walkabout. It’d make her mother insanely happy if they went up to her sheep ranch for a while and just be for a bit.Between North Industries and Clan business she was becoming run down. Now the addition of a new mate added it’s own level of stress to her exhausted body.Yes, once Sally was hers they would take some down time and she would show her the bushland she had grown up in.With her mind calmer she headed back towards the building. She had run far, but less then she thought she’d need to to calm it all down.She
Hunter was furious with Luna, but it was really nothing new. It didn’t matter that it might be the 20th century, some people would always treat it like they were still tribal. The shear intimacy that came with Clans, Packs or Prides made things worse of course.Celeste and Luna’s mother didn’t live with the clan for a reason. Her and Celeste’s father owned their shearing ranch and were happy away from the politics. But when Celeste’s Nona had left, the Matriarch was always a direct descendant. Either Celeste or Luna had to take her place. Celeste had won every challenge thrown her way. The Clan was her everything.It hadn’t stopped those who didn’t like Celeste’s changes though. To mate with someone out side of the clan had been a sticking point, as if she had chosen her fated partner to spite them.North Industries was another, though they were hard pressed to argue that. In fact, Hunter taking the Clan&rsqu
Sally was exceptionally grateful that her apartment was just far enough away that she could comfortably angry walk home. Cause she was so, so very angry.Kyra had been confused at her change after returning from her toilet break. Sally had been tight lipped, she still had a lot to learn about the politics of the place before she would feel comfortable ragging on the boss.Thankfully Mr North stayed in his office all afternoon, only paging through to Kyra when he needed anything. It made Sally mortified to realise he’d only been visiting them all those times before to scope her out.As such Sally gave him no extra reason to spend time with her. At 4:20 on the dot she picked up her bag, said thank you to Kyra, and stalked home.How DARE he do that. She didn’t care how young, pretty and seemingly unattached someone was. He was married. His wife was one of her bosses. She worked at the same fucken building as they did. What had he thou
Even if she hadn’t been able to smell her, Celeste would have known the moment Sally stepped into the office space. She could feel her presence all the way down to her bones.Hunter was enamoured with her; he had spun the tale of Sally defending her virtue into a story of epic proportions. After the roller coaster of the last few days, Celeste was delighted to see the joy Hunter got out of this, even if it painted him as the bad guy in Sally’s eyes.Celeste wondered what the girl would tell her when they finally got a moment to talk. As she approached her, Celeste smiled to herself. Her little mate was brave considering the conversation she’d had with Hunter yesterday,“Mrs North?”Celeste bit back a groan. The light, warm way she said her name was addictive, Celeste could listen to her all day. She turned from the photocopier, taking in her black pants and turquoise, long sleeved top as well as the waves of red curls falling
It had been a most amusing day.At some point around lunch Kyra pulled him aside. “Do we need to worry about her mental health?” She’d hissed and Hunter only managed to not laugh by shear force of will.He could understand Kyra’s point. Sally had been walking around in a daze for most of the morning, yesterday she had been competent and fun till Hunter had asked her out, and then she had been short and cool with everyone. Without any context, Kyra must have been getting whiplash from the changes.“I’m sure it’s just new job jitters, the retail position she was in did not let her reach her full potential.” That had been painfully obvious when Hunter had contacted them Monday after the interview. While they were quick to be angry about him poaching their worker, they were quicker to accept compensation. If nothing else came of a relationship between the two of them, he was happy to get her out of there.
Sally certainly hadn’t expected their night to be as fun as it was. Hunter was attentive and interesting. She could hear his passion for environmental architecture and understood instantly why north industries had flourished so.The pub was cozy even if Hunter was a dirty fish eater she hadn’t had a date like this in a while.The underlining current of what was to come couldn’t be denied and Sally realised she wanted to be with both of them. It felt surreal to her. Maybe in her wildest dreams had she thought of having two lovers at once. But here she was, actually contemplating a relationship with a married couple.It was something so far out of her comfort zone that she probably should be worried. Instead she was excited.“Would it be too early to ask for one kiss?”Fucken Hell, the man was sin on legs. Her knees practically went to jelly and she had to close her eyes to get some form of cohere
As Sally lived close to the office, Celeste decided she would catch up on some work while Hunter had his date.After the day they’d all had, Celeste had no doubt that they would hit it off. Sally had even appeared excited at the prospect of a date with Hunter this afternoon and she knew the fucker could be charming.“Will you mind if I kiss her?” He’d asked before he left.She’d given him an eye roll, bumping his shoulder with her own. “If you don’t I might divorce you.”His smile was delightful and she could feel his love pulse through their bond. He’d slung an arm around her shoulder in half a hug. “Promises, promises,” he’d teased.Celeste smiles and hoped they’d had a good night. She wanted to take Sally to the Clan’s house this weekend. Maybe have a picnic near the bush land and show her their powers. Celeste wanted to take things slow,
This was not supposed to happen.Hunter was still furious with members of the Clan interfering with this. And he knew Celeste’s Nona would not have stood for it. He couldn’t hold her leaving against her though. The Clan would never have accepted them if she hadn’t left; he just wished she was here to give Celeste a chance to be with her mate.As it was, they sat in the small living room, in nervous silence while Hunter made them a hot chocolate. He didn’t feel like there was much else he could do, but he needed to do something.Giving Celeste hers she offered him a pained smile that tugged at his heart. He tried to hand Sally hers but she wouldn’t unwrap her arms from around her body. He sighed, placing it on the coffee table in front of her and sitting on the arm of the chair Celeste had sunk into.“What’s going on?” Sally whispered. She wouldn’t even look at Celeste and his ma