Controlling Interests

Chapter 6: Declan

Lucas: Change of plans. On my way up with Jayne.

Dammit, Lucas. My phone pings its text message at me and I let out a deep sigh as I wonder what he's up to. It's not even the start of our work day and he's already dragging her ass up here.

Either she's worse than we thought or he's seen her and thinks we really do need to keep a close eye on her.

I hear a combination of voices and footsteps approach the door and sit back in my chair to watch the trainwreck that is Evelyn's daughter unfold.

Lucas walks in with an interested look on his face and his eyes are trained on me as he steps to the side.

"Jayne, I'd like to introduce you to Declan."

I catch a breath in my throat and hold it for a moment as she steps into the room and I take in the sight before me. Her face lights up when she sees me and I'm instantly thrown off guard.

Her genuine smile is nothing like the resting bitch face on her mother and her appearance is deceiving as I would never expect that this girl standing in our office would have been born to Evelyn.

They look nothing alike.

Where Evelyn is stick thin and tall, Jayne fills out in all of the right places and is an average height. Her top strains ever so slightly against the swell of her tits and her pants grip her waist and show off her curves perfectly. Her heels are modest, and she is the complete opposite of those uptight bitches in admin that HR seems to always hire.

I wait for the kicker where Jayne opens her mouth to speak and the resemblance to her mother becomes painfully clear, but it never comes.

"It's nice to meet you, Declan." She says as she innocently walks into the room, unaware of the situation she is in. Like a lamb walking straight into a lion's den. The poor girl has no clue. The thought sends a jolt straight to my cock and I shift in my seat.

She is a trusting soul and I glance over to Lucas who is standing by the door examining my response to her and grinning like an asshole.

"Hi, Jayne. Thanks for coming up to meet with us." I begin and look to Lucas to prompt him to lead. For some reason, he decided to go against our plan of sending her to the HR pool and I have no idea what is on his mind.

Lucas clears his throat and sets his expression back to professional as he walks into the room behind Jayne and places a hand on her lower back to motion her to take a seat in front of my desk. She doesn't flinch or pull away and I notice Lucas take a slow shuddering breath to himself in appreciation of her docile nature.

As she sits, completely oblivious of her situation, Lucas pulls up a chair and settles in beside her. He takes care to give her space as he faces the chair in between us and begins. "Howard speaks very highly of you." He smiles to put her at ease and pauses for a response.

"Thank you. Howard is a wonderful man." She begins and I keep my face frozen as I listen to her talk about my father. A soft smile crosses her lips and it looks natural. I remind myself that she is still Evelyn's daughter and looks can be deceiving.

"How do you know Howard? Have you worked for him before?" I ask fully aware that I am now the one playing with my own deception but I tell myself that it's for the greater good.

"Um, Howard is dating my mother and he offered to send my information over because he heard I was looking for work and your company is hiring." She answers truthfully almost concerned that her presence before us will be viewed as favoritism. I tilt my head to offer her the chance to continue speaking and she takes it as a sign that I am challenging her qualifications.

"I have a background in administration though and my references will speak to my strong work ethic. I'm a hard worker." She pauses as she becomes flustered. In the second she lets her guard down I see an innocence radiate off of her and I feel a surprising punch of desire hit me.

I glance over at Lucas and for a brief moment, he is watching her like he wants to eat her up.

"We did look at your qualifications Ms. Michaels. Very impressive." Lucas leans forward to answer her concerns and I watch as she nods in appreciation.

"Declan and I wanted to steal you away from the HR pool as a position under us just became available. I think you would be a great fit for it and a recommendation from Howard does go a long way. He would never have suggested you if he wasn't confident you could help us." Lucas continues as he glances out of the corner of his eyes at me and I know that look. He's silently urging me to go along with him until he can speak to me in private.

At this point, I'm willing to see where this leads.

"We are in need of an assistant. We have a secretary, but with my brother and I running this company, we have a lot of additional -- needs." Lucas pauses to compose himself and the corner of my mouth curls up in a smirk at his choice of words.

Now I see where he's going with this.

At his last sentence, Jayne's eyes go wide. "This is your company?" she says in realization and I find my cock twitching at her little doe-eyed response. Lucas and I nod and a temporary silence seeps into the room.

Immediately, she straightens in her seat straining the buttons on her shirt a little more. I shift again in my chair. This conversation is bordering on arduous torment as I watch her lips pucker into a silent 'Oh' when she realizes she is dealing with the big boys.

Lucas is sitting quietly off to the side and I can tell by looking at him that he wants to start playing with our new toy any minute so I wrap it up, for now.

"It is. Sorry I wasn't clear. I'm Declan Hale and this is my brother, Lucas and we would like you to be a part of our team. You would start off at the same rate of pay as your current offer and then there would be an increase after your three-month's probation is up. How does that sound to you?" I ask and Lucas tosses a glare at me as though I just took away his candy.

"That sounds great. Thank you so much, Dec... um... Mr. Hale." I smile at her voluntary formality and Lucas relaxes back into his seat, satisfied with our meeting's outcome.

"Please, call me Declan. You can see Janice just down the hall. You will be seated close to her. She will get you set up." I motion for her to leave and she turns and complies without question.

We both sit in silence and watch her as she heads through the door. Her pants hug everything so perfectly and I instantly imagine what it would feel like to squeeze the curve of her ass as I push up behind her.

I bring myself back to the room and look questioningly at my brother. He better have a good reason for bringing this temptation into our domain.

"Well?" he asks as he meets my stare with the dumbest grin I've seen in a long time.

"Holy shit, Lucas. What the fuck was that?"