Scandalous Desires

Chapter 12

[Warning: Mature Content]

The next morning, Micah dragged herself out of bed. She hadn't slept much since she stayed up so late. But it was time well spent because she had a huge discovery concerning the Russell scandal that she planned to bring to her boss' attention asap.

She woke up with about 45 minutes of time to spare before having to leave for work. Alex was still in her room sleeping, she usually worked noon and evening shifts, so Micah was always as quiet as possible.

She quickly showered, brushed her teeth and brushed her hair up into a tight bun. She then pulled on her black, blazer and pant suite set, with a red top and matching red, pointed toed pumps. She used minimal make up since her skin was naturally even toned and blemish free. She grabbed her laptop, files, and purse and headed to the Coffee Shop hoping to get another coffee and perhaps a bagel before settling at her cubicle. She knew it was going to be another long day and she didn't have time to make breakfast.

When she got to the Coffee Shop the line wasn't as long as the day before, but she still had only about 20 minutes to spare. When she got to the counter she put in her order and waited. A young chinese girl, smiled and told her it would be ready within 5 minutes. "Great," said Micah as her phone pinged, it was a text message from her mom.

"Hi, just checking in to see how my baby girl's first day went. Dad was worried that things didn't go well when we didn't get a call yesterday. Call us when you can. Love Mom," the message said.

Micah sighed, she did forget to call her parents. She had originally planned to call them after she left HR yesterday, until the unexpected meet up at Cherry's totally distracted her.

Just when Micah was about to message back she heard a familiar voice, "Hey! It's the doll-faced lady from yesterday. How are you?" It was Rita, the Chinese lady who waited on everyone who was on line yesterday, including Mr. Obnoxious.

"Hi, Rita," said Micah. She smiled at her. "You remember me from yesterday?" said Micah surprised.

"Who can forget your face? You look like Naomi Campbell's 'mini me,' or something," she laughed. Micah chuckled.

"Thank you…" she said.

"What can I get you today?" asked Rita.

"Oh I already ordered," said Micah. And just as she spoke, the younger woman passed her a bag with her bagel sandwich inside, and a cup of coffee.

"Your friend wouldn't stop asking for you yesterday," said Rita as Micah opened her purse to pay.

"My friend?" said Micah, wrinkling up her nose. Who was she talking about, she wondered.

"Yes, the nice gentleman who was here with the angry guy," she explained with a smirk on her face. Micah couldn't help but laugh at her choice of words.

"He wanted to know if you came back. He said I should give you this," she pulled out a business card and handed it to her. Micah simultaneously took the card while handing her the money.

"Oh, no payment. Mr. Nice said anytime you come he will pay."

"Really!?" said Micah, surprised even more. She stared down at the card, which had the words, "Mr. David Williams, Chief Executive Officer, Magnum PR Inc.," printed on it, with his contact info underneath. David Williams? she thought

"But… I don't even know the guy," she said to Rita, as she tried to give her the money.

Rita shook her head. "Mr. Nice is a big customer, and good guy. Please accept his gift," she said.

"Are you sure it was me he was talking about?"

"I'm sure," she said without hesitation. "He said, the beautiful doll lady who he got the free coffee for yesterday. He called you, 'Miss Doll,'" explained Rita with a smile.

Wow… ok! thought Micah, surprised. She wasn't sure what to think in that moment. She was glad for the free stuff. She also didn't have time to look a gift horse in the mouth, she'd be late. She made a mental note to contact the guy and deal with it later.

"Please tell Mr. Nice, I said thank you," she said. She thanked Rita, with an appreciative smile, and rushed out with her food and beverage to the building next door.

When Micah got to the lobby she greeted Sylvia at the front desk, she still had 10 minutes. She went straight to the elevators. She got there just in time, as a few people she didn't recognize got on too.

Micah took a deep breath as the elevator doors closed and they rose up from the ground floor. She was sure she'd never get used to the ride up. She tucked the card from Mr. Nice in her purse. Then, she sent a text to Ms. Hearte reminding her that she would be coming to her office to discuss a major finding for the Russell story.

"Change of plans, I'm still in an important staff meeting, let's meet around 11am. Prep. for press conference with Dickson in the meantime, he's free now," came a text from Kathleen. Micah gave a sigh.

She hoped he was in a better mood today, she really wasn't looking forward to another repeat of yesterday, but she was ready for him if he tried something.

Arriving at her desk she got a few hellos from co-workers. The floor was just as busy as the day before, with reporters at their computers and phones. As she arrived at her desk she heard another ping on her phone. It was a text from Rick, "Meet me at my office in 5 minutes" the message said.

Micah grabbed her Russel file, laptop and breakfast and made her way passed the maze of cubicles and offices to Rick's office.

She didn't even bother to knock on the door when she got there. She peered through the glass. He was sitting at his desk typing and stopped to drink a bottle of water.

"Alice is framing Russell," she said bluntly, as she walked in. She threw her file down on his desk, "and I can prove it." Rick immediately turned his face away from the desk, as water sprayed out of his mouth in shock, and he started to cough.

Micah bit her bottom lip to hold back a laugh, "You ok?"

"Hello to you too", he said, with a frown, "how do you know?" he asked once he gained some of his composure.

"Check the file, it's all there," replied Micah, as she sat down on one of the black chairs facing his desk and sipped her coffee.

He thumbed through the pages in the folder, "most of this is about some guy named Howard White…" he said, still frowning.

"Right. Howard White," began Micah, "is on the board of directors for both the CLC and Mineral Springs. CLC owns ChemCo, the company that contaminated the water. They also have a whole host of other subsidiaries…." Her voice trailed off as she stared at him to make sure he was listening. "...Including a water testing company, called CO2 Solutions. Look at page 5," said Micah, as he flipped the pages. "That's a copy of the report released by South City's Water and Waste Management at the time they switched over to the contaminated water."

"Ok…?" said Rick as he examined the page.

"Look at the bottom of the page," she pointed at the page, "Who did the inspection?"

"Wow...CO2 Solutions," he said, still reading through the document.

"Exactly," she said, taking another sip of coffee. "They hired a private contractor to inspect the water. And Howard White is the only CLC board member who stood to gain anything by having a subsidiary inspect the water and report that it was ok. I checked."

"But I still don't get it," said Rick, "what's this got to do with the secretary?"

"The secretary," said Micah, "is Mr. White's daughter," she said. Rick's eyes widened.

"You're kidding!"

"I'm totally serious."

"But… this still doesn't prove that Russell didn't know anything about this, for all we know, he could be working with White," said Rick.

"Good point," said Micah with a grin, as she took her first bite of her bagel. "Check out my questions for the press conference at the back of the folder."

"Were you aware that Howard White, your secretary's father, owns the company that inspected the water at the time it was switched over?" He read out loud. He skimmed down the page of questions. "All these questions surround Russell's possible awareness of White's involvement."

"Correct," she said between chews. "I think our time would be best spent at the conference asking questions surrounding these issues instead of the questions we had written down yesterday," she explained.

"This is… good research," he said with a grin, "potentially."

"Potentially?" Micah rolled her eyes. What did that mean?

"A late night google search down a rabbit hole of happenstance connections doesn't not make for good investigation. Primary sources do," he said flatly.

"True. That's why I plan to pitch the idea to Hearte to write an article on this after we get back from the press conference. Russell's comments plus some phone calls for quotes to verify the info would make an excellent head story," she said.

Rick's eyes widened, and then he smiled. The gleam in his eyes seemed unnerving, again. "Excellent idea," he said with a shrug of the shoulders. "Pitch it," he said, with no further reservations.

"You think she'd go for it?" asked Micah, wondering what Rick was thinking.

"She's generally not open to rookies getting ahead of themselves and pitching head stories at her. But…"

"But what?" she asked with a suspicious look.

"Maybe I can talk to her for you. Get her open to it, and then you step in with the pitch," he offered. Micah stayed silent wondering what the catch was.

"What's the catch?" she asked.

"No catch, it's just an offer. I have some pull around here as the CEO's son and you've got a potentially good story. Just thought I'd help," he said with a shrug, "but if you don't want me to…."

"Let me… think about it and get back to you," she said. She wasn't used to this version of Rick. He was being nice. It was like a Dr. Jekell and Mr. Hyde switch compared to yesterday. She wasn't sure she could trust him. Maybe she was too suspicious, "Thanks, though," she added, just in case he was genuinely trying to help.

"So… today is a better day for you than yesterday? You seemed more on edge," she commented, trying to find out if maybe yesterday was just a fluke.

"Uh, yeah. You know, we all get up on the wrong side of the bed sometimes," he replied while typing a message on his phone.

Ok, true. But his wrong side was really wrong.

"And uh, who was that guy with you at the Coffee Shop yesterday?" she tried to seem nonchalant about it, but it was so much the opposite. She cursed her reporter mind which was trained on asking direct questions all the time.

"Uh, you were there yesterday?" he asked, still typing on his phone.

How'd he not remember? Apparently his friend did, enough to buy her food and drinks, thought Micah. "Rick," she said, "come on, you were looking right at me!"

Her words made Rick tear his eyes away from the phone screen and look right at her just then. He raked his eyes over her body slowly. She saw glimpses of the penetrating and lusty stare he gave her when he caught her in his arms yesterday, and it made her feel off centered again. Something about those deep green eyes on her made her heart race and her breath catch. She was hot again.

"Can I open the window?" she said, taking her blazer off, "I'm hot," she began fanning herself.

"Indeed, you are" he said suggestively with a sly smirk. She noted the double meaning of his comment with a look. He knew the affect he was having on her, and he was enjoying it.

He stood up and cracked the window. Then he moved to stand in front of her, as he leaned back against the desk. "Can I offer you something to cool you down?" His voice softened, and his eyes were looking at her deeply again, pulling her into his deep green orbs. She nervously licked her lips again, just like yesterday, and he bit down on his bottom lip in response.

She looked up at him and nodded her head, "yes," she said, in almost a whisper. Her eyes looked directly at his lips, "you can," she said, as she stood up in front of him.

"Come here," he said. He wrapped his hands around her waist and pulled her against him, like he did yesterday. His cologne, his warmth around her felt intoxicating.

He pressed her firmly against his body, His lips were less than an inch from hers. She could smell the hint of coffee and mint on his breath."You can't keep doing this to me, sweatheart," he whispered, tracing her jaw with his finger, the sensation made her body tingle. "Yesterday I had to leave just to keep you from seeing the effect you have on me…." She could feel him hardening against her.

"What do you want to do about it?" She asked boldly, her hand rubbed against him. The heat inside her was building up. She leaned up to close the last centimeter of space between their mouths, and she pressed her lips urgently against his. He responded and kissed her back. Her full lips felt soft against his. He began tasting her with his tongue and tugging at her lips eagerly with his own.

Her arms wrapped around his neck, as she pressed her body into him. She could feel his hard chest against her breasts, as his tongue begged for entry into her mouth. Micah opened for him and moaned as his tongue explored her mouth, and tasted her tongue. One of his hands rubbed gently against her n****e, while he moved his other hand down passed her waist and squeezed her behind, pressing her now hot, wet core against his tented pants.

She didn't care that they were in the middle of his glass office, even though it was the last office at the end of the hall. The fact that Anyone who approached the door could see them, was even more of a turn on to her. She so badly wanted to feel her skin against his. His expert tongue inside her mouth only aroused promises of what he could do if he were inside her right then….

His mouth broke away from hers and began tracing kisses along her jaw and down her neck,"Micah…" he whispered. She moaned. His wet tongue on her skin made her n*****s harden more and her insides hotter. She began grinding her core against him as he called her name.