Losing His Shirt Read online

  LOSING HIS SHIRT

  By Linda Fausnet

  To all the rich assholes I’ve ever worked for - to my knowledge you never did find your humanity, but maybe there’s hope for you yet.

  My books contain steamy sex, bad words, and human beings of all sorts, include gay people. If you’re not a fan of those things, you may want to stop reading now. If you’re cool with that stuff, come take my hand and join me on this journey…

  This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity and are used fictitiously. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.

  Published by Wannabe Pride 2017

  Editing by Linda Hill

  Cover Design by Chuck DeKett

  Formatting by Polgarus Studio

  FIRST EDITION.

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2017907480

  ISBN: 978-1-944043-17-9

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  “Affluent Accents Accessories, I can’t wait to help you!”

  I felt like an idiot every time I had to say that ridiculous phrase. It was bad enough that the luxury car accessories company I worked for had such a stupid tongue-twister of a name, but then I had to tell people I simply couldn’t wait to help them! Ugh, and it sounded so fake. Customers knew damned well I was being forced to say it.

  “Oh yes, Mr. Matthews. I’ve got you confirmed for lunch with Mr. Creel tomorrow.” Mr. Matthews indeed. He was one of my boss’s college frat buddies. I highly doubted any real business would be conducted at that liquid lunch.

  The front door to the office opened, and I looked up to see Cody, our eighteen-year-old stock boy, walk in. I smiled and waved at him, and he blushed as he waved back. It was obvious he had a crush on me, which was adorable. Since I was twenty-four; he knew I was too old for him, but he was sweet. I did my best to draw him out of his shell and make him feel more confident. I often asked him to lift moderately heavy boxes for me – ones I could easily carry myself – since he was always eager to help. I liked making him feel strong and useful.

  I hung up the phone and looked up to see Clara, our financial manager, standing in the doorway. “Rosemary, I’m heading in for my meeting with Tony,” Clara said. “Give me a heads up when Creep gets here, ‘kay?”

  She grimaced, which made me laugh. In her mid-thirties, Clara was smart and kind, yet she had little patience for our boss. Johnny Creel – known as Johnny Creep by the staff – was the owner of the company. Lucky me, I got to be his executive assistant. It was beyond ridiculous to think that spoiled, overgrown frat boy needed an executive assistant. It wasn’t like he did any work.

  “I’ll warn ya!” I said with a laugh.

  “Rosemary?” Cody asked. “Do you, you know, need any help with anything?”

  My heart melted when I looked at him. I just wanted to pinch those cheeks of his, though I knew that wasn’t exactly the kind of attention he wanted from me. My coworkers loved to tease me about his schoolboy crush, especially the way Cody couldn’t always hide his frequent erections around me. I pretended not to notice them. I made it clear to my fellow workers that they could tease me all they wanted, but if they ever embarrassed Cody, there would be hell to pay.

  “Actually, yes,” I told him with a smile. “We just got in a new shipment of car covers. They’re by the back door. Can you put them away?”

  “Sure!” Cody said, his eyes lighting up. The place was pretty busy now; Christmas season was here and there was no shortage of luxury car owners wanting toys and accessories for their precious vehicles.

  Tony walked by my desk with a quick smile and a wave as he headed into his meeting with Clara. “Morning, Rosemary! Let me know when Creep gets here.”

  I giggled. Tony was the office manager, a distinguished-looking man with salt-and-pepper hair. Ugh. I didn’t envy Tony or Clara. They always had meetings together before our weekly office meeting with Johnny. It was their way of planning exactly what to tell him about how business was going. Johnny fancied himself a savvy businessman, but all he really wanted was yes-men – and women – to tell him what he wanted to hear. The truth was, Johnny’s father, a prominent bank attorney, had launched Affluent Accents Accessories. Daddy gave the company to Johnny like it was a toy for him to play with. Tony and Clara really ran the business; they told Johnny the bare minimum he needed to know while still making him feel important.

  The glass door swung open and Johnny breezed in, clad in his usual designer jeans and button-down shirt. He was a good-looking man to be sure. Tall, broad-shouldered and muscular, he worked out frequently and it showed. He had gray eyes and a square, masculine jaw. Most of my friends thought he was super hot, but that’s because they didn’t have to work with him. All they really knew about him was what they read in the tabloids about the Johnny Creel. Playboy, big spender, party guy. Objectively, I could see he was handsome, but he was so goddamned smarmy and spoiled that I couldn’t possibly summon any attraction to him. I had no respect for him whatsoever, so he could never be hot to me.

  “Hey, hey, hey, everybody!” he called out.

  My stomach clenched involuntarily like it always did when the boss man showed up. Just the smell of his cologne was enough to make me feel nauseous. Thankfully, Johnny only bothered to show his face in the office one or two days a week. I brushed my long, red hair out of my face, took a deep breath, and plastered on a smile.

  “Good morning, Johnny.”

  As usual, he glanced at my cleavage before looking up into my eyes. I usually wore lower-cut blouses when I knew he would be here. I wasn’t proud of it, but Johnny was nicer to me when I wore stuff like that. I did what I had to in order to get through the day. Of course, Cody stared at me a lot when I dressed like this, too, but that was different. I never felt like a piece of meat when he looked at me. His gaze was more innocent: affectionate, even. He didn’t only stare at my body. He also knew and liked me as a person.

  “Heyyy, how’s it going?” Johnny said, high-fiving Cody like a complete dork. I was sure Johnny thought he was a cool boss because he wore jeans to the office and let us call him by his first name. He wasn’t fooling anyone. No matter how friendly he seemed, he didn’t give a damn about any of us. I’d never seen him do anything that wasn’t entirely self-serving.

  I discreetly texted Tony and Clara to warn them that the Prince had arrived.

  “Okay, everybody ready for the morning meeting?” Johnny asked, though it wasn’t really a question. It was a thinly veiled command: code for get into the conference room now.

  There was a loud knock on the warehouse door. “Oh, that’s the FedEx guy. I’ll be right there, Johnny. I promise,” I said, feeling the stress ball in my stomach get bigger. Since Johnny had no clue about working in the real world, he�
�d probably blame me for being late to the meeting even though I was just doing my job. Johnny nodded grimly, clearly annoyed.

  I dashed to the warehouse door and Johnny followed me. I wished he would just go to the conference room already. I’d be there as soon as I could.

  I lifted the steel warehouse door and greeted our regular FedEx guy with a smile. “Hey, Robby. How’s the family?”

  “Good, pretty good,” Robby said, returning my smile. He looked tired, but happy. His wife had just given birth to their first child, a girl. He pulled three heavy boxes from the truck and set them on the warehouse floor. While he was doing that, I grabbed the Tupperware box full of mini-chocolate bars I kept aside for delivery people. He grinned at me. I handed him the box of candy and he handed me the electronic box to sign for the delivery.

  “Hey!” Johnny protested. “Why are we giving out this stuff to delivery guys? That ain’t cheap, you know.”

  How would you know? I thought. Johnny had probably never paid for a thing in his life. Everything he owned came from Daddy Creel.

  I forced myself to smile. “It’s okay, Johnny. I bring these in myself. They’re not paid for by the company.”

  “Oh, okay,” Johnny said, placated for the moment. Then he grabbed a handful of the candy for himself.

  Robby and I exchanged Can you believe this guy? looks.

  “Thanks, Rosemary. You have a good one!” Robby said as he headed back toward the driver’s door of the truck.

  “You too. Give that baby a kiss from me!” I turned to Johnny. “Okay, I’m ready for the meeting.”

  He nodded, still looking slightly put out from having to wait. He walked ahead of me; I’d have to move quickly. I knew he expected me to get his coffee prepared just the way he liked it, yet somehow miraculously make it to the conference room before him. I ducked into the kitchen and grabbed the pot. I poured coffee into his favorite mug, which was gold-plated and had the company’s logo on it. I put seven teaspoons of sugar in the cup. He certainly acted like a petulant child, so it made sense that he drank coffee loaded with sugar like a little kid would. I had to get his coffee to him before it was too cold for His Majesty; I couldn’t microwave the cup because of the ridiculous gold trim.

  I rushed into the conference room and set Johnny’s coffee down in front of him.

  “Thanks,” he said with a wink. I half-expected him to add the word “doll.”

  I forced a smile and sat down at the conference table, picking up my notepad. Tony and Clara wore the same fake smiles I did. This weekly meeting was, by far, the worst part of our jobs. We just had to get through it, knowing Johnny would leave the office soon after.

  “Okay! So, how’s it going, everybody?” Nobody answered because we all knew he didn’t care how it was going, and he wouldn’t wait for an answer anyway. “The first item on the agenda is I need to give you all a friendly reminder that the Internet is for company use only, and not for surfing on company time.” He waggled a finger at us and said with a smile, “Don’t think I don’t see when you switch screens when I walk by your desk.”

  I blushed and looked away, remembering that I recently had CNN News up on my screen when Johnny walked by. God forbid I spend two minutes catching up on the news. My muscles tensed with anger and stress as I scribbled on my notepad, pretending to care what Johnny was saying. The guy worked for no more than two hours a week, and he was gonna complain about us being on the Internet for a few minutes during an eight-hour workday?

  “And I’m pretty sure sales are down,” Johnny said. “Seems like we’re not as busy as we were last holiday season.”

  Johnny had no idea what our sales were; I doubted he could even read a sales spreadsheet.

  “Actually, we’re holding pretty steady,” Tony offered. “Few ups and downs here and there, but overall just as good as last year.”

  “Do we really want to settle for ‘just as good,’ or do we wanna be better? Come on, people!” Johnny said with that infuriating smile. “We need more sales if we’re going to remain a viable business. You’re the manager, Tony. Manage this place!”

  “Well, what we really need is a good sales rep,” I told Johnny. “I mean, Tony’s responsibility is to manage, and he does a great job. But he’s got his hands full with handling the inventory, putting out ads, interviewing people, training, and handling all the HR stuff.”

  Tony smiled at me. It felt good to defend him.

  “I mean, it’s my job to handle all the administrative stuff. Answering phones, processing online orders, preparing invoices and all that, so I don’t have time to drum up sales. Clara’s got her hands full with payroll and all the finance matters. We don’t have anyone dedicated to sales and bringing in more business. If we hired a sales rep, that would be a huge help,” I explained.

  “Rosemary,” Johnny said, like he was actually considering my proposal. “Get me a blueberry muffin, would ya?”

  You’ll get fired if you punch him, I reminded myself. Just get him the muffin. Maybe he’ll choke on it.

  Wordlessly, I got up and walked into the kitchen. The first step was getting his muffin. The hard part would be resisting the powerful urge to mash it right into his smarmy face. Knowing Johnny, he wouldn’t even eat it. God forbid Mr. Carb-Conscious did anything to mess up his precious physique. He really did have a great body. His muscles bulged under his clothes and he probably looked great shirtless. I didn’t care; he still looked hideous to me.

  Sure enough, Johnny barely ate two bites of the muffin. He was chugging his sugar-laden coffee, though. No carbs in sugar, right Einstein?

  “Come on, guys. I need ideas here! What can we do to boost sales? What am I payin’ you guys for?” Johnny looked accusingly at Tony and Clara.

  My stomach tightened. I really liked my coworkers, and I couldn’t stand to see Johnny treat them this way. I wanted to do something to placate Johnny so he’d wrap up this torture session and get out of the office.

  “I guess maybe we could try another mailing. You know, do a brochure of our products like we did a few years back,” I suggested. That would be a long-term project where we could all take our time getting the photos, writing the copy, and finding a printer. If we gave him updates now and then on the mailing, he would feel like we were doing something to boost sales. Might get him off our case for a while.

  “Good idea, Rosemary! You put something together, and make sure it’s ready for the Christmas rush. Get it done by the end of next week. At the latest.” With that, he drained the rest of his coffee and stood up. He wiped his mouth with a napkin and tossed it on the table. “Okay, that’s enough for today. Let’s all get back to work.”

  Johnny dashed out of the room. Tony and Clara let out deep sighs at exactly the same time.

  “We’ll all help you, Rosemary,” Clara said. “Don’t stress about it, okay?”

  “I’ll try,” I said with a weary smile. My body felt heavy with dread and I barely had the energy to get up, but I knew I should hightail it to my desk. Johnny was still skulking around and would expect to see me hard at work.

  The second I got to my desk, the phone rang. I picked it up immediately and said, “Affluent Accents Accessories, I can’t wait to help you!” and my soul died a little more. I took the customer’s order as quickly and efficiently as I could with Johnny standing at my desk, watching me critically.

  Johnny glanced at the phone as I hung it up. “That reminds me. The last time I called into the office it took you three rings to pick up the phone. We really can’t have customers waiting that long.”

  Cody walked into the room just as Johnny was criticizing me. His soft brown eyes darkened a bit. “Well, you know, sometimes it’s hard for her to get all the way to the phone that fast if she’s working out there in the warehouse.” Cody gestured toward the warehouse area, where he had just come from.

  I smiled gratefully at Cody. It took serious balls to speak up to the boss like that. I was honored, yet worried that he would take such a risk to
defend me.

  “Yeah, exactly!” I said. “That’s why I was telling you that I need a headset for the phone. Then I could answer it right away, no matter what part of the office I’m working in.”

  “Well, you know,” Johnny said, eyes narrowing in Cody’s direction. “If you were doing your job, Rosemary wouldn’t have to help you in the warehouse, now would she?”

  My anger bubbled over, reaching a dangerous level. It was getting harder and harder to hold my tongue where Johnny was concerned. It infuriated me when he was mean to Tony and Clara, but seeing Cody blush deeply and hang his head with embarrassment nearly pushed me to the edge of my self-control.

  “Cody always does his job. Always. And with a smile on his face and without complaint.” I took a breath to steady myself, then smiled at Cody. “Hey Cody, Robby dropped off a bunch of boxes this morning. Could you unpack them please?”

  “Sure, Rosemary,” Cody said with a grateful smile. He turned and quickly returned to the warehouse.

  “All right, well I’m off to work from home for the rest of the day,” Johnny announced.

  I dug down deep into my well of patience and summoned the strength not to laugh or roll my eyes. I don’t know who he thought he was fooling. Nobody knew what that man did with himself all week, but it certainly wasn’t work.

  “Okay, Johnny. See ya later!”

  “I left a stack of bills on your desk for you to take care of. Thanks!” Johnny called as he sailed out the door.

  I sat down at my desk, wanting to cry. I had company work to do, so paying his personal bills was going to have to wait. I waded through all the orders on my desk as more phone calls came in and more online orders popped up in my email inbox.