Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,9

had recommended her for the company training programme which she had taken and loved, surprising herself that she had the knack for figures and book balancing. When she had first got married, Dale had dealt with all the financial things; she had just spent the money and if they didn’t have any, she didn’t spend any – simple. So to find out some years later that she could actually do figure work was a revelation. This revelation coincided with Dale’s emotional ‘meltdown’, meaning that she now took care of the finances at home too.

Stephen had come on-board three years ago and the fact that she was just slightly senior to him irked him, she knew. Olivia had been the new addition a couple of weeks ago straight from University and, despite Elise’s misgivings about the girl; she was shaping up to be good at her job.

In the last few months, Elise had been trusted to attend conferences, along with some of the other senior staff; to sell their wares, so to speak. They were targeted with talking to large companies to persuade them to relinquish their in-house accounting methods and hand responsibility over to Andrews & Andrews. Whilst this was more of a sales role, Elise found that it came to her relatively easily and she was really starting to enjoy the conferences. On the last one which she had only returned from only a couple of days ago, she had managed to snag a large, up-and-coming multi-national who had an excellent on-site team but were looking for a company to manage their private pensions and investment accounts. This had earned her high praise from Mr Andrews Snr. and she and Cole had been absolutely thrilled. Elise had yet to tell Dale; he had not been sober long enough since she had been back. The conferences were where she had really got to know Celeste who worked on the A – F team on the other side of the office. They had clicked straight away and had fast become good friends.

The new office construction she had failed to notice before was actually a large stud wall area, opposite the kitchen and adjacent to the G – K team. Thinking about it now, she vaguely remembered the builders doing some work in that area but had taken no notice of it.

Approaching the uniform light brown door, she was momentarily taken aback by the nameplate adorning it:

MR VAUGHN GRANGER

MANAGING DIRECTOR – OFF SITE ACCOUNTS

Managing Director? Wait a minute. Stephen had called him a ‘rep’, mentioning nothing about his MD status and why the hell had Cole not said anything last night? And what on earth was ‘off site accounts’ when it was at home? None of this made any sense. Surely if Mr Vaughn Granger was a Managing Director, someone somewhere would have mentioned it. And more to the point, what was a Managing Director doing getting raging drunk at the Christmas party and leaving to destination God-knows-where with the newest member of staff? And even more to the point, what the hell was he doing e-mailing her?!

Realising that she would get none of these answers standing outside of his door and staring inanely at his nameplate, she knocked brusquely and waited. It didn’t matter who he was; MD or no MD, he had no right to e-mail her the way he had, no right to call her beautiful and absolutely NO right, to ask for her phone number.

“Come.” the tone was short and to the point. The small office unit had been constructed in such a way that the window faced the kitchen and the outer office, not the door, so unless he stood behind the peephole, he would have no way of knowing who was outside.

Elise opened the door tentatively, unsure what to expect. As she entered and locked eyes with Mr Vaughn Granger for only the second time ever, she was aware of two things; one, coming to his office had been a huge mistake and two; she was totally and utterly screwed.

He was stunning; no, he was beyond stunning. How had she not noticed this last night? The dark hair and dark dark eyes she remembered, but everything else was a complete revelation. He sat expectantly at his desk waiting for her to speak as she remained mute and her eyes drank him in. Definitely mid-thirties, he had a rugged face and clean-shaven jaw which emphasised his infinitely kissable mouth. Currently, it was curled up at the corners