Fit to Be Stapled

By Lauren Smith

He's the CEO and she's off limits…

 

Spencer Howe can't let anyone know what's going on in his head, especially when he daydreams about bending his junior ad account manager over her desk and showing her what her sass does to him. Cate Cross isn't just sassy though, she's beautiful, brilliant and perfect for the senior account manager position at his advertising firm.

 

He knows he gets under her skin when he calls her his assistant. He does it to get a rise out of her, and she throws it right back at him. There is so much chemistry between them, but he knows it won't work. She can't stand him most of the time. If he doesn't get her to accept his company's promotion soon, he's afraid another company will take her away from him when she finishes her MBA. He'll do anything to show her that she's his, in the office and out, even if that means breaking a desk or two to prove his point.

 

Note: This is a short story with a happy ever after intended to be enjoyed over a lunch break *wink

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lauren Smith
• Release date: Jul 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9781958196328

Book preview

Fit to Be Stapled

Fit to Be Stapled

An Office Romance

Lauren Smith

Lauren Smith Books

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Summer Heat Wave

Summer Heat Wave

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

Copyright © 2022 by Lauren Smith

Cover design by Clover Book Designs

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Lauren Smith supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [e-mail]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-958196-32-8 (ebook)

ISBN: 978-1-958196-33-5 (print)

Chapter One

If it wasn’t for her boss, Cate Cross would have the ultimate job. In fact, she loved everything about it—the hours, the atmosphere, the pay—except for Spencer Howe, the CEO of Howe Marketing. He was broody, bossy, and a total taskmaster who demanded perfection from everyone, but especially her.

He wasn’t some old grump who would fade into the background of her consciousness. Instead, he was thirty-one and so fine that when he wore his Tom Ford suits, which was every business day, every woman in a fifty-mile radius sat up straighter and their panties got a little wetter. Cate had seen the reaction he got from women personally.

The first day she had started her associate account manager position at the firm, Spencer had exited the elevator and strode past her in a dark-blue suit so crisp it made her mouth water. The other three women working on the floor by the elevator all stared at him too. One woman leaned so far back in her seat that she and her chair toppled over. Spencer didn’t even turn at the sound of the crash.

He was obviously used to the effect he had on women, just like Clark Kent was so used to his superior strength that he never broke anyone’s hand when he gave them a handshake. Spencer had his superpower under control. Cate never wanted to see him turn that intensity on her. She wasn’t sure she could survive it.

Soon she wouldn’t have to worry, though. She was almost finished with her master’s in business administration program. She’d be done in a month and would move on. Her current job at Howe Marketing had been arranged through her MBA program, and it was her hope that she would have been able to stay in the position and advance once her program was over. But even if she was offered the chance to stay she couldn’t.

All because her boss treated her like an administrative assistant.

There was nothing wrong with being an administrative assistant. They were amazing. Anyone who thought that being an administrative assistant was easy was fooling themselves. They had to be the master of the universe to get a million different jobs done. She had nothing but respect for the people who held such jobs. But Cate was working toward managing ad accounts and creating marketing plans for clients. That was her dream job. And if Spencer didn’t see her in a position like that at Howe Marketing, she couldn’t stay here.

You headed home? Mary Ellen, Spencer’s actual administrative assistant and a total godsend, asked Cate as she slung her purse over her shoulder. She and Cate had desks facing each other just outside Spencer’s office to be within easy summoning distance. Normally someone with Cate’s position would have been in an office, but because she was learning the ropes of the job, Spencer had moved her to a desk near his office. Mary Ellen’s presence had been invaluable in helping her learn the day to day things that Spencer didn’t have time to teach since he spent most of his days in meetings.

Yeah, I’ll go home soon. I just need to wrap up a few things.

Don’t work too late, Mary Ellen said. The boss starts expecting it, and then you lose your Friday nights. You’re too young to be working late.

Thanks. Cate blushed. At twenty-four, she had long since abandoned any thought of a social life. She’d always worked harder than other people her age. She’d finished college in three years and went straight for an MBA. Between work and classes