Kissing the Alpha Boss: An Accidental Office Romance Read online

  Kissing the Alpha Boss

  An Accidental Office Romance

  Jillian Riley

  © Copyright 2019 - All rights reserved.

  It is not legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental.

  Contents

  Foreword

  1. Poker Face

  2. Google Never Lies

  3. A Blessing in Disguise

  4. Hot for Teacher

  5. The Experiment

  6. Patterns

  7. Misunderstandings

  8. Don’t Go Breaking My Heart

  9. Bad to Worse

  10. Putting the Cart Before The Horse

  11. Enough is Enough

  12. M.I.A

  13. Texas Bound

  14. Change of Plans

  15. Everything’s Bigger in Texas

  16. Falls Ranch

  17. Hot With a Side of Spicy

  18. Equine Therapy

  19. Tippy Canoe, I See You

  20. Under Water

  21. Falls From Grace

  22. Falls Ranch Falls

  23. Change Is In The Air

  24. White Tents and Glass Houses

  25. The Naked Truth

  Epilogue

  Afterword

  Foreword

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  1

  Poker Face

  Lucas had always prided himself on having an amazing poker face. Even as a child, he’d been able to keep his true feelings and emotions hidden. No one really knew what he was thinking. His friends and family were often shocked when he finally chose to reveal the truth.

  “I thought you loved having a beard!” “No, I only had a beard because my boss at work had one. Personally, I hate them.” Or, “But you loved her cooking.” “No, her cooking was awful. I just ate it because she was my girlfriend.”

  So, now, when he got together for his monthly poker game with his friends from work, Lucas got to enjoy using his poker face skills. His bluff was the stuff of legend.

  “Lucas, you win again. Seriously, mate. I can’t tell when you have an ace or a two.”

  Lucas Mitchell was the founder and CEO of Alchemy Enterprises. Seated around the table in the game room of Lucas’ mansion were several of the other C-level executives and vice presidents. They made a point to get together for poker night once a month so that they could ‘keep it real’. In other words, they didn’t want to lose touch with their fun side.

  “Okay, are we ready for the next deal?” Steve Dunham was the Vice President of Operations, and was usually the dealer. Shuffling the deck and handing each player five cards, he said, “As usual, the game is five card draw, and the last man standing wins the pot.”

  Beverly Powers cleared her throat loudly. As the only women on the executive team, she frequently had to remind the men that there was a female in the ‘boys club’.

  “Make that, last person standing,” Steve corrected, with a grin.

  Looking at his hand, Lucas quickly realized that in order to win this round, he was going to have to bluff. There was no coming back from the terrible combination of cards he was holding. Distraction was the first step in his bluffing tactic.

  “Steve-o. You must love me to have given me these cards.” Lucas grinned.

  “Lucas, no one loves you. You’re the boss.” Steve’s retort caused the others at the table to exclaim, “Ohhhh…smackdown.”

  “Right. You’re just saying that because you’re mad I win so often.”

  Simon Michaels, who was on his fourth rum and coke of the night, shook his head, and said, “No, mate. It’s true. Everyone respects you because you’re the boss and you’re damn good at what you do. But no one really likes working for you.”

  There was an awkward silence around the table, and each player just kind of stared at their cards for a moment.

  Lucas was waiting for everyone to say it wasn’t true, but no one was speaking up. “Wait. What?” He set his cards down (face down, of course).

  Beverly cleared her throat a bit before speaking. “Lucas, don’t get us wrong. We like you. We understand why you do and say the things you do. But, that doesn’t always make its way down the corporate ladder.”

  Not believing what he was hearing, Lucas looked at his friends. When the punchline to the bad joke never came, Lucas shook his head and said, “That’s bullshit. Most of the people in this company love working here, and love working for me. Let’s play.”

  Steve looked at Lucas, eyebrows raised and a doubtful expression. “Are you sure about that? I’d bet that they love working at Alchemy, yes. Working for you, not so much.”

  Everyone was nodding in agreement. “All of you think this?” Lucas was shocked. “Fine, then. Put your money where your mouth is.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Let’s bet on it.”

  “How do you suggest we do that?” Simon wobbled a little as he got up to refill his drink. “It’s not like you can just go around asking people, ‘Do you like me?’ They’d never tell you the truth.”

  “What if we got someone else to ask the question?” Lucas asked.

  “You’re going to get someone to walk around and ask everyone if they like Lucas Mitchell? That seems a little sophomoric to me,” Beverly added in.

  Steve’s face lit up with excitement. “I know. Lucas, you can go undercover in the company. Wear a disguise. If you can get, say, four people to go on camera--your phone--and say that they like working for Lucas Mitchell, you win. If you can’t, we win.”

  That would be easy, Lucas thought. Four people? Let’s make it worth it though. “I can get that in two weeks. No problem. What do I win?”

  The table sat thinking for a moment. Steve spoke up first. “How about this? If you win, we each forego a month’s salary.”

  Lucas was a multi-millionaire in his own right and didn’t really need the money. But the table was full of highly paid executives, and this was a larger bet than they usually made on poker night. It interested him. “Okay…”

  “And if you lose…” Beverly added, “You take the whole company to an offsite team building meeting at Falls Ranch.”

  Simon asked, “Where?”

  “It’s in the United States. Texas. My nephew owns it.” Beverly took a sip of her beer.

  “So, if I lose, I have to take the entire company from Australia to some ranch in Texas?” Lucas was very interested now. He knew he wasn’t going to lose, and this was a huge bet. But there were four people around the table who were all making a million dollars a year. They were each betting a month’s salary. His bet had to be equivalent.

  “Yes. All 250 employees. From Sydney to Falls Ranch, Texas.” Steve was looking at Lucas with an ‘I dare you’ expression on his face.

  In a deep, slow drawl, the one person who hadn’t spoken up yet said, “Don’t do it, man.” At 60, Jack was the oldest of the group, and he was a man of few words. “You’re gonna lose.”

  Surveying the faces at the table and absol
utely blown away that they were so convinced that he couldn’t get four people in his own company to say they liked working with him, Lucas nodded his head and announced confidently, “You’re on.”

  2

  Google Never Lies

  “Good morning everyone.” Liv Stevens walked to the front of the long conference table. She was an elegant woman in a corporate sort of way. Despite the fact that the field office of Alchemy Enterprises only had about fifty employees, Liv dressed like she was the CMO of the whole company. She’d taken the ‘dress for the next level up’ adage literally. Today she was wearing a grey pencil skirt, a satin blue long sleeved shirt with a ruffled bow at the neckline, and her blonde hair was smoothed into a page-boy that curled under at the nape. She was the epitome of ‘corporate Australia’.

  “Thanks for coming to the weekly staff meeting. As I’m sure you noticed this week, we have a new team member.” Gesturing at the woman seated to the right of her she continued, “This is Alicia Taylor, and she’s our new Social Media Marketing Manager.”

  Liv was the Marketing Director for Alchemy’s field office and had been farming out the social media duties to various people in the department. After a meeting with the CMO, Simon Michaels, they’d agreed that it was time to hire a full-time social media manager.

  “Alicia comes to us from Newcastle, right?”

  Alicia nodded yes.

  “She got her degree in marketing from the University of Sydney. And then worked for a few years for an agency doing their social media marketing, and that’s what brought her here.”

  After everyone went around the room giving a brief introduction, Liv went on to talk about the various product lines, and each manager gave an update on its marketing. After the meeting ended, Liv went back to her office, and several people were standing around talking.

  “Did you see the live stream yesterday? Mitchell was even more arrogant than usual.” This came from a tall, thin man wearing a beanie and sporting a hipster beard.

  “No, Bernie, I make a practice to avoid those live streams. Lucas thinks they are helpful, but really he spends the time talking about himself and his vision for the company.” The woman he was talking to was about a foot shorter than he was and kept subconsciously rising up on her tiptoes.

  Since Alicia was new, she didn’t want to say anything. She just kept shuffling papers and listening. Someone, a redheaded woman, turned to her and asked, “Did they tell you about the weekly live streams?”

  Alicia nodded. “Yes, Liv mentioned that the CEO does weekly live streams to update us on what was going on in the company. She seemed to think they were useful.”

  “That’s what she has to say.” Lucy Jones said as she gathered her things from the conference table. “But everyone knows that the live streams are just another way for Lucas Mitchell to praise himself and his leadership.”

  Alicia was surprised. The job offer had come really quickly, and she hadn’t had a chance to do her due diligence on the company. She didn’t know anything about this Lucas Mitchell. Hadn’t even Googled him, which was unusual for her. But, it seemed like pretty much everyone here hated the guy.

  “Is he really that bad?” Alicia asked.

  “It’s not that he’s bad. He’s a really good businessman, actually. The stock has gone up consistently every year. It’s just his personality. He’s arrogant.” This came from Ron White, who ran tech support from the field office.

  Another woman, Keira, added, “He’s one of those blokes who thinks that everything good that happens in the company is because he’s a genius. He asks for feedback to make it seem like he’s a team player, but then he takes the advice and makes it sound like his own idea.”

  Lucy nodded and added, “You’ll see for yourself. Go watch one of the live streams. They’re on our website. The man is completely full of himself.”

  Alicia closed her office door. Sitting at her desk, she opened her lunch bag and pulled out the sandwich and chips she’d brought. Taking a bite, she decided to look up this Lucas Mitchell fellow.

  The first Google result was his LinkedIn profile. While he wasn’t formally educated, he’d founded a successful software company in his twenties and sold it for several million dollars. His success at that led him to found Alchemy Enterprises, and so far the company was doing even better than Lucas Mitchell’s first company had. He’d even been included in Fast Company’s ‘20 under 30’ list of successful people to watch.

  No wonder he’s so full of himself. He’s very successful, she thought, sticking a chip in her mouth.

  The next result was the company website. A few keystrokes led her to the recordings of the infamous live streams. Picking one at random, Alicia hit play and then sat back in her chair to see what all the fuss was about.

  “Cheerio, everyone. This is your fearless leader Lucas. This week’s live stream is going to be an update of our new product launch.”

  Alicia’s first reaction didn’t come from her mind. It came from her body. Instantly, Alicia felt a jolt of electricity run down her body, and she literally stopped breathing. This was one of the most attractive men she had ever seen. And he was her boss!

  The video continued, with Lucas talking about demographics and market shares. But, frankly, Alicia wasn’t listening. She was staring at him. As he spoke, his thick full lips were practically moving in slow motion. He strongly resembled Brad Pitt, but with a stronger jawline and longer hair. His piercing blue eyes seemed to bore right through the computer screen and into her body.

  That’s when the voice in her head started. Alicia, stop it. This is what you always do. Remember when you were in university and got crushes on all of your professors? Or that job for the construction company where you had an affair with one of the foremen? This is what you do. You’re attracted to power. And if he’s an asshole, all the better. Just stop.

  But, Alicia couldn’t stop the video. She was mesmerized. Finally, Lucas wrapped it up by saying, “That’s all for now. As usual, I want to hear from you. Shoot me an e-mail and let me know if you think of any way we can improve. After all, Alchemy is about combining different elements to create transformation.”

  Suddenly, that corporate tagline made more sense. Lucas Mitchell clearly knew a thing or two about chemistry. That was for sure.

  3

  A Blessing in Disguise

  “Sit still!” Rhonda Barron, a makeup artist with the Australian version of the American television show Undercover Boss was giving Lucas Mitchell a professional disguise. “You’re going to get it in your eyes!”

  Lucas wasn’t sure about dying his hair from his normal sandy blonde color to almost black, but Rhonda had said that he needed a dramatic change if he planned to fool people who knew him and had worked with him for years. He also needed to learn how to glue on a fake beard, put in dark brown contacts, and speak with an American accent. That last one would be easy, as Lucas had been obsessed with the television show Full House as a boy, and copied John Stamos’ accent at every possible opportunity. ‘Uncle Jesse’ had been Lucas’ favorite character. He’d always dreamed of being as smooth and cool as that guy. It’s why Lucas wore his hair long, actually.

  “Are you going to make me look like Uncle Jesse?” Lucas said in his perfect California accent.

  “Who?” Rhonda asked as she was rinsing the black color out of his hair.

  Lucas had been lucky to hire Rhonda. She had successfully transformed dozens of executives as they went undercover in their own companies. But, on the show, they didn’t go undercover as part of a bet to prove that everyone didn’t hate him, Lucas mused. She was on a break from filming and had done it as a personal favor to him.

  Twenty minutes later, his hair had been colored, cut, and blown dry, the beard had been applied, the contacts installed, a new pair of glasses were on his head. All he needed was to change into a more corporate outfit than he was accustomed to wearing, and his transformation would be complete.

  “Can I help you?” Lucas’ own
secretary, Josie, asked as he walked in the front office of the Alchemy headquarters.

  “I’m here to see Steve Dunham,” Lucas said in his best Uncle Jesse accent.

  “May I tell him who’s here?” She was looking right at him!

  “Tell him it’s Luke Johnson. He knows what this is about.”

  Nodding, she retreated behind the glass doors. Fooling Steve would be the ultimate test.

  Lucas could see Steve talking with Josie as he approached the foyer. He could hear Steve telling her that he didn’t know any Luke Johnson.

  Making eye contact as he opened the doors, Steve said, “Hi, I’m Steve Dunham. How can I help you?”

  Reverting back to his normal Australian accent, Lucas answered, “You can give me the twenty dollars you owe me from last week’s poker game.”

  Steve’s face morphed from confusion to surprise to delight. “Oh, my god, Lucas, is that you? I can’t believe it.”

  The two men walked into the recesses of the office, leaving a shocked Josie just standing there with her mouth open.

  “So what’s your cover story?” Steve asked as he sat down at his desk. “You’re obviously going to try and pull off being an American.”