Free Anna's Contract by Deva Long

one
     
    “Miss Whitehorse, this is unacceptable. You’ve stolen a great deal of money from us.”
    Caden Morning, Managing Director of the Southern Region of global conglomerate Darco, Inc., stared over the edge of the printed page he was holding. He dripped with disapproval, yet when Anna Whitehorse looked into his eyes, she detected a brief flash.
    A smile, his eyes are about to smile at me.
    A shadowy, sensual smile, not a grin or a giggle.
    This very morning, he strode in to Darco like a rock star, with a celebrity’s confident strut. Too perfect to be a mid-level manager like the others in the center offices. A man who owned the place, which he did, basically.
    Silence followed Caden Morning when he walked through the cube farm. Titters and exclamations were once again uttered aloud when he closed the door to the inner sanctum of manager’s offices and meeting rooms.
    Anna peeked from behind her bangs, desire running through her panties to her nipples to her brain. Though he was more slim than broad, his tailored suit jacket fit him like a glove and his pin-striped pants hugged his thighs and the bit of his ass visible below his jacket tails.
    Life hadn’t been easy for Anna, and she’d been thrilled to land a desk job at Darco, and put her hard-earned night class office software skills to work. She possessed a talent for explaining technical issues in lay terms, her community college business technology instructor said so. Darco was training her to be a Customer Care Specialist. In some ways, it was a professional apologist, because the company spent more on winning contracts than engineering. Darco’s customers were in Government, security related departments. She wasn’t sure about the full extent of Darco’s business, but she had been apologizing for the problems with the company’s airport management software quite often during her training.
    More thrilling than the job was the fantasy she indulged in at bedtime: finding a nice guy from upper management and building a life. A house at the edge of town. Another cat. Maybe a dog. A play-room. A baby to play in it. Being a realist, Anna’s fantasies did not often cast men handsome as Caden Morning. Not unless she’d just watched a movie featuring Brad or Ben.
    Now her dream man looked at her with angry Caribbean blue eyes, startling in their intensity, popping from beneath his curled and gray tinged inky hair. His chiseled jaw jutted firmly and his sharp brows were set at the bleeding edge of fury.
    Anna Whitehorse squirmed, running her hands through her own long midnight curls, tears and cheap mascara cascading down her cheeks.
    Her bargain basement black pencil skirt and puffy white blouse provided insufficient coverage to hide her curves and she was sure he could sense her nipples growing under the thin shield bravely raised by her blouse and brassiere.
    “I’m so sorry, sir. The money was just added to my checks. I should have notified someone I was being paid too much.” She sniffed. “But I kept it. I kept the money.”
    Director Morning’s ropey neck muscles flexed under his collar. His scent tickled her nose, cinnamon and pine, with honest man-sweat riding underneath. With a twenty-percent unemployment rate among the young in the Southeast, this man pushed through new hiring rules requiring employees to sign a multi-page contract, exchanging most of their rights for a job. Junior staff, like Anna Whitehorse, had to promise to obey all company policies, not to talk to anyone about what they did at Darco. There was some complex language about a bond. She didn’t understand all of it, but she did realize that she owed money to Darco for the extra pay she had started receiving six months ago and then discreetly deposited and spent. A big pile of money.
    I should have reported the error right away, I know exactly what I’m supposed to be paid each month. Anna cursed herself for taking the money and risking her hard-won office job for a few