The One and Only

  Mia Madison

  The One and Only

  Copyright © 2017 by Mia Madison

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.

  Contents

  1. Mallory

  2. Brian

  3. Mallory

  4. Brian

  5. Mallory

  6. Brian

  7. Mallory

  8. Brian

  9. Mallory

  10. Brian

  11. Mallory

  12. Brian

  13. Mallory

  14. Brian

  15. Mallory

  About the Author

  1

  Mallory

  It was my personal belief that nothing would ever be as embarrassing as remaining a virgin throughout high school. It wasn’t until I went to college that I realized just how wrong I had been.

  I suppose some of the blame was on me for expecting my peers to be more mature after hitting the age of adulthood. Being a virgin in high school might have been slightly humiliating, but being a virgin in college turned out to be almost unbearable.

  Even with all the jokes and pranks I endured over the years, nothing had ever been enough to break my resolve. Worse than anything else I’d been faced with was the infamous rumor mill. Not because I couldn’t handle the whispers and teasing, but because some of the rumors that swept through the campus during those four years had ultimately cost me any kind of social life.

  Not many people wanted to hang out with the girl who was in some kind of cult or the weirdly religious girl who was desperate to get married right away and have seven kids. I was grateful that not everyone bought into those rumors, but I couldn’t say I was close to any of the few friends I managed to make.

  Dating was even harder than making friends. The majority of attention I got seemed to be from guys who thought they were smooth enough to pop the notorious virgin’s cherry. Trying to figure out who was genuine and who just wanted to get into my pants was the challenge that made me give up on dating altogether.

  “But those days are over,” I said with a smile as I stole a glance at my reflection.

  My college days were behind me and as soon as I was able, I started applying for jobs and looking for apartments far away from the small town I spent the first twenty-two years of my life in. In the span of three months, I scored a place in the city I could afford and shortly after that, a job offer.

  I finally had the fresh start I always wanted. One where I wouldn’t be judged or labeled for my personal life, or lack thereof. I could date like a normal person and hopefully would be able to find a man who understood and respected my reasons for wanting to wait.

  Despite popular opinion, I wasn’t saving myself for marriage. I understood those who wanted that, but I wasn’t looking for a happily ever after romance.

  The only thing I wanted was love.

  Deep in my heart, I knew those feelings would never change. Even if I had already lost my virginity, the thought of sleeping with someone I didn’t love held no appeal for me. I didn’t need that love to be everlasting, I just needed something real. I couldn’t fathom the thought of giving myself to someone in that way without knowing it meant more than satisfying a physical urge.

  My cell phone ringing snapped me out of my thoughts and I could feel my cheeks heating up when I saw my mom’s name on the caller id. Shoving the thought of sex completely to the side, I swiped to answer the call.

  “Hi, sweetheart!” she chirped, not even giving me a chance to respond before she added, “I know you’re probably on your way out, but I just had to call and wish you good luck on your first day! Your father and I are so proud of you.”

  “Thank you,” I responded with a smile that spread at her enthusiasm. Still, even though I was excited, there was a more dominant feeling taking over. “Is it normal to be this nervous?”

  “Always. No matter how old you get, every first day will feel like this. Embrace it, Mallory. I know it might not seem like it now, but that feeling won’t last forever and once the monotony kicks in—”

  “I’ll be bored to tears,” I finished for her with a chuckle. As a woman who bounced from job to job just for the variety of learning new things, I could see it coming a mile away. “Thanks again, Mom. I better go or I’ll miss the bus.”

  “Call me at the end of the day and let me know how it goes! Love you, cupcake!”

  “I will. Love you, too.”

  I dropped my phone into my bag and took one more moment to straighten my clothes and flatten my hair with my palms before dashing out the door to make the bus.

  The ride to my new job was painfully slow and just as boring. I was looking forward to a steady paycheck—one that hopefully would be enough to afford cab fare every now and then.

  I finally arrived at the building and felt the same sense of wonder looking up at it that I did when I first came for my job interview. It was easy to forget just how large of a building Wolfe Publishing was in. I definitely wasn’t in Arizona anymore.

  “Going in?”

  I jerked my head to the side and gave a nervous smile to the doorman. His eyebrow raised as he held it open and I muttered a quiet thanks before stepping inside.

  A group of people packed into the elevator like sardines and I forced myself not to let out frustrated sighs every time the car stopped to let someone off. I was already running behind thanks to the bus being slightly off schedule. The last thing I wanted to do on my first day was to be late.

  According to my watch, I was dead on the money when I finally stepped onto the twenty-fourth floor. The secretary remembered my face and waved me back and I hastily rushed deeper into the office where Janice was waiting for me.

  “Hi! I’m so sorry I’m late, I—”

  She held her hand up and shook her head. “You’re right on time, Mallory. Good to see you again.”

  I smiled and nodded in agreement, remembering the way her friendly demeanor had put me so at ease during the interview. Had I been speaking to anyone else, I doubted I would’ve landed the job. I was so nervous my palms were sweating.

  “Ready to dive in?” she asked with a cocked eyebrow.

  “Ready as I’ll ever be,” I confirmed, glancing nervously at the frantic people who were shuffling around the office. “Is it always like this?”

  Janice shook her head. “No. Today’s a crazy day for all of us, so just try to keep up and pay attention. I’m going to give you a brief walk-through before sending you out on your own.”

  “On my own?” I asked, swallowing nervously at the sight of her curt nod. “Isn’t there some kind of training?”

  “Nothing formal. It really isn’t required.”

  It didn’t seem like I had much of a choice other than to take her word for it, so I changed my direction of questioning while I jogged to keep up with her.

  “Will I be meeting the boss today?”

  “He’s booked solid with meetings today. I’m sure you’ll see him at some point this week.”

  I frowned and asked, “This week? Aren’t I supposed to be his assistant?”

  “Officially? Yes. But that’s really just an umbrella term. In fact, I have to give this same spiel to the three other new assistants today.”

  “He has four assistants?”

  “No. Like I said, it’s an official title. Those of us who’ve been here for a while like to refer to you lot as swings. You’ll be working wherever you’re needed doing primarily menial tasks. You’ll report directly to me for your daily assignments, or Mr. Wolfe, assuming he’s available.”

  Janice was still breezing through the office past employees who looked like they were a breath away from fainting. I caught myself swallowing nervously again, wondering if I’d be able to keep up with the fast-paced environment.

  It was a small consolation that I wouldn’t be learning the ropes alone if what Janice said about three other new assistants was true. Though it did make me wonder what happened to the last four assistants if they were all being replaced at once.

  “So where should I start?”

  “Just learn the office and help anyone who needs it. The coffee maker is in the break room and the copier is just through here.”

  She led me into a small room and gave me a quick rundown on how to use the copier before pointing to other things I might be asked to fetch.

  “Everyone here knows the swings are new, so you shouldn’t need to know more than this for today. I’ll be around if you need anything.”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  She must have sensed my self-doubt because she gave me another warm smile and gently patted my shoulder before whispering, “You’ll be fine. Just roll with the punches and you’ll feel at home in no time.”

  I nodded more to myself than to her and whispered, “Thank you.”

  Someone shouted her name from down the hallway and Janice rolled her eyes. I fr
owned as we stepped back into the hall and waited as the man behind the voice stepped into view.

  “My next appointment for the day,” Janice murmured. “He’ll be working with you. Fair warning—watch what you say around him. He’s Mr. Wolfe’s nephew.”

  I could only hope that the relation didn’t mean the guy wasn’t willing to work. From the sound of it, all of the assistants would be continuously busy and I had no intention of pulling a slacker’s weight.

  When the man came into sight, my blood ran cold.

  He froze to the spot, his grin widening with disbelief as he shouted, “Mallory?!”

  “You know each other?” Janice asked in surprise.

  Jeremy laughed and nodded as he approached.

  “Hell yeah. We graduated together,” he explained, his eyes gliding up and down my body. My skin crawled as a lazy smile tugged at his lips. “And we used to date.”

  I’d hardly call his attempts to get into my pants dating, but I didn’t have it in me to point that out.

  All I could do was watch in horror as my fresh start went up in flames.

  2

  Brian

  Some might think that a man who built his own empire from the ground up would be happy with his life. Or his job, at the very least.

  Those people would be wrong.

  If those people happened to work for me and copped an attitude, they would also be fired. Immediately and with no remorse.

  Which explained why we were bringing four new assistants in on one of the worst possible days for it.

  But damn if it didn’t feel good to see the look on the former assistants’ faces when I dropped them all at once.

  I paid my employees fairly. Hell, I paid them generously. The swings got nearly double minimum wage as it was, so when the last four grouped together and tried to demand raises, I got a little pissed.

  One yelling match later, I was down to zero assistants. Had it been anyone else in the company, I might have granted them the raise they asked for. The problem with those four was that they didn’t recognize their place.

  Swings are trainable. I didn’t care how much work they did or what they felt like they deserved. They were so damn easy to replace that it was better for my bottom line to get new ones.

  Harsh? Perhaps. But everyone had their place. Hopefully, the lesson I taught them would stick with them. Assistants were at the bottom. It’s just the way it was.

  “Mr. Wolfe? You’re eleven o’clock is here.”

  I pressed the intercom button even as my eyes rolled. If it was already eleven, the new assistants were all here. Which meant I’d likely be spending lunch with my nephew.

  Fan-fucking-tastic.

  “How’d it go?”

  I grunted, the sound making Janice chuckle.

  “That bad, huh?”

  “It wouldn’t be very professional of me to call a client a snot-nosed piece of shit.”

  She laughed loudly and fell in line beside me as I stalked toward the break room.

  “The newbies are all present and accounted for.”

  Another grunt followed by another chuckle. We rounded a corner and I froze to the spot, cocking my head to the side as I stared at the woman at the end of the hallway.

  “Mom—Mom, seriously. It’s fine,” the girl said softly into her cell phone. Even from down the hall, I could hear her exasperation. “I’ll be okay. Everything else is going well so far.”

  I had no context to draw from, but I could put the pieces together. I’d never seen her at the office before—and I’d sure as fuck remember her—so she was clearly one of the new swings. Judging by what I heard from her end of the conversation, she apparently already found a complaint about the job. That didn’t bode well for anyone.

  I cleared my throat and her neck snapped toward me, her eyes widening in alarm. I slowly approached as she muttered a quick goodbye into the phone, using the moment of her distraction to study her.

  Gorgeous. From head to toe, she was total fucking perfection. From the dark hair twisted into a neat bun down to the super modest outfit that covered her petite frame. The closer I got to her, the harder my heart beat. Never before had I felt such an immediate attraction for a woman—at least not one quite this strong. It was alarming for more reasons than one.

  The biggest being I had a fairly strict interoffice relationship policy. I didn’t forbid it completely, but it was specifically designed for those higher up in the company so nobody could fuck their way to the top, for lack of better phrasing.

  Not once had I regretted the policy. Not until she parted her lips and nervously said, “H-Hello.”

  “Mallory, this is Mr. Wolfe. Mallory’s one of our new assistants. The shining star out of the applications, if you ask me,” Janice said with a smile.

  “I bet. Is there a problem?” I asked slowly, my eyebrow raising as her face flushed.

  “No! Of course not. I’m just getting used to... everything.”

  “It’s a lot to take in,” Janice said sympathetically.

  My cock jerked slightly and I had to fight myself not to grin. Yes, it was a lot to take in. I wondered if little Mallory could handle it. I was certainly aching to find out.

  “I should... get back to work,” she said as she slowly backed away.

  “It’s lunch. I doubt anyone’s going to need your services right now.”

  Her tongue darted out to moisten her lips and I nearly groaned. She was clearly overwhelmed either by the new atmosphere or me—God, I hoped it was me—and looking for an out.

  “I’m going to learn my way around. I, uh... Have a nice lunch.”

  As soon as the words escaped her lips, she spun on her heel and took off. I didn’t take my eyes off the spot she had disappeared from until I heard Janice making a tsk-tsk sound with her mouth.

  “That girl has a lot of potential, but she’s a bit of a spaz.”

  “I like it.”

  Ignoring the surprised raise of her eyebrows, I continued into the break room, groaning when I remembered the reason why I was dreading lunch.

  “Hey!” Jeremy shouted before gesturing to the open fridge. “I was just about to grab your bag and come find you.”

  “I got it,” I grated, snatching the bag and stalking from the room.

  As I expected, Jeremy was only two steps behind. He barged into my office right behind me and made himself at home in the chair across from my desk.

  My teeth clenched as I shut the door and they stayed that way until I sat down and snapped, “Get your fucking feet off my desk!”

  He looked properly chastised, but the cocky smile was back as soon as his feet were on the floor. He shoved his sandwich into his mouth and spoke around his food, much to my disgust.

  “Thanks again for the job.”

  “You’re only here because your mother begged me to give you a chance.”

  He swallowed his food and let out a fake sound of disappointment.

  “Aw, come on. Don’t be like that, Uncle Brian.”

  “Do not call me that here. You’ll call me sir or Mr. Wolfe. Nothing else. Got it?”

  “Fine. Hey, can I leave a few minutes early today?”

  “If you want to get fired, go right ahead,” I said in exasperation, already regretting giving in to my sister’s pleas. At least I had a chance to lay it all on the line. “Don’t think us being related gives you special privileges. If anything—I’ll be watching you more closely than anyone else.”

  Jeremy snorted and replied, “Doubt that. If I were you, I’d be too busy watching Mal to pay much attention to me.”

  “The fuck did you just say?”

  “Mallory Jones. She’s one of the—”

  “I know who she is,” I interrupted. “I met her in the hall. What I want to know is why you’re talking like you know her.”

  The grin that appeared made my stomach clench. No. No, no, no—

  “We dated for a little while.”