Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 61422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 307(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61422 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 307(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
“I… I see,” Mandy said, her voice losing its earlier edge. “I suppose I could make those calls now.”
As I watched her pick up the phone, a memory surfaced unbidden—Joe’s casual mention that Heather had paddled Mandy for laziness a few months ago. The image flashed through my mind: Mandy bent over a desk, her skirt raised, as Heather brought the paddle down with a sharp crack.
I felt my cheeks grow warm. I tried to push it away, as usual, but as Mandy spoke to someone in IT, efficiently arranging my database access, I couldn’t help but wonder: was this sudden cooperation the lingering effect of that punishment? Had my sharp tone reminded her of the consequences of her laziness?
Even more disturbingly, I found myself imagining what might happen if I were the one to discipline Mandy. The thought sent a jolt through me—part shock, part that same excitement I had learned to tell myself meant nothing.
To prove to myself that it meant nothing, I followed the train of thought. I pictured myself holding the paddle, saw Mandy’s nervous glance over her shoulder as she bent over…
“Alright.” Mandy’s voice snapped me back to reality. “You should have access to the database now. Is there anything else you need?”
I blinked, trying to banish the unsettling thoughts from my mind. “No, that’s… that’s perfect. Thank you, Mandy. I really appreciate your help.”
CHAPTER 10
Stuart
It didn’t surprise me that Mandy’s disrespect became the flashpoint for Melissa’s inner struggle. My secretary’s perpetual laziness, her always walking just this side of insubordination in order to get her own need for discipline met, was bound to trigger my new junior exec’s intriguing mix of submissive and dominant arousal triggers.
What I didn’t expect was how Melissa’s independent work on New Modesty Blue would set everything off. So when Mandy complained about Melissa one morning two weeks after Melissa’s arrival, I didn’t think much about it at first.
“That new girl,” Mandy told me at our morning meeting as she went over my calendar for the day, “is getting too big for her britches, way too soon. I don’t want to tell you your job or anything, sir, but I do want to warn you.”
I frowned at her across the coffee table.
“Of course you don’t want to tell me my job,” I said, injecting a slightly stern note to make certain Mandy understood that from time to time she definitely did do that. Since her last paddling, Mandy’s performance had improved, but I could see that the effects had begun to wear off.
“Of course,” she repeated, smiling in a catty way that tried to enlist me—her boss—in her little conspiracy. “I know you like to know what’s going on with your team, though, sir.”
Mandy’s laziness, alas, stemmed from her sizable intellect. She could have risen to the ranks of the junior executives, at the very least, had she had the ambition. She had grown content, though, with her subservient job—not only because of her submissive sexuality, a requirement for the position at Selecta, but also because it didn’t take nearly as much effort, for someone of her abilities, to turn in the same level of work as the other secretaries.
When properly motivated, I had always found Mandy’s work outstanding. Truth to tell, I had never minded motivating her, either. Heather had administered Mandy’s last punishment with the official paddle, but the time before that, when Mandy had needed a reminder, I had spanked the girl over my knee—a measure I currently wondered whether I should repeat, given her attempt to deliver this ‘warning’ about Melissa Mitropoulos.
“So?” I asked, knowing that I needed to get to the bottom of it—in one way or another. “What are you warning me about?”
“Well,” Mandy said, knitting her brows as if she really just wanted to think it through with me, “she’s working on something with the assessment team’s audience demographics database. She’s not really learning the business, the way I know you tell your new execs to do.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, genuinely puzzled.
“You know, sir. Going around… talking to people and asking them what they do. Not just sitting at her computer typing goodness knows what.”
I could tell that underneath Mandy’s apparent mistrust of independent work there lay some other complaint—probably Melissa had asked for Mandy’s help with various things well within the secretary’s duties, but which Mandy found beneath her, or too time-consuming. Given that Mandy seemed to find it too time-consuming to answer the phone, I tended toward Melissa’s side of the argument even without hearing it.
On the other hand, though I wouldn’t fault a member of my team for working on something on their own, I did try to get my team to function as a unit. I hadn’t heard anything about what Melissa might be working on, and I spent a moment wondering whether I should inquire—before Mandy went on to the next agenda item and took my attention in a new direction.