Office Assistance Ch. 01

"Emma Catherine Richardson", a stern voice called from inside the office. Emma felt the warmth begin inside the core of her and she could swear she felt the moisture begin to seep from the walls of her vagina. It was like this every time he used her full name and that tone.

As a little girl and all through her formative years until she left home, Emma was in love with her father. And not just little girl loving her daddy love, but true agonizing, from the heart, unspoken love. He was handsome, with close cropped white hair, stern, dark eyes, a lantern jaw, broad shoulders, big hands and a body that appeared to be made of raw power. Though usually dressed in a suit and tie, even at home before and after work, or a golf shirt and long pants the few times he stripped to his bathing trunks for a swim he displayed a barrel chest, broad powerful back and strong, thick legs.

Although Emma was one of the few, if not only by the time she was a teenager, people who could bring light to her father's dark eyes and even a smile to his typically clenched mouth, even she could not avoid his wrath when he was angry. His voice would permeate the 17 rooms of their home no matter where he stood when he called for one of his children using their full name. In Emma's case the deep bass of "Emma Catherine Richardson" reverberating through the house was almost always followed, within minutes, by force, in the form of her father's giant paw of a hand, being applied to her backside.

Even when she turned 18 and was in her senior year of high school, her father still made her cheeks sting and glow bright pink at least once a month.

So as she heard her full name voiced in a similar deep tone from inside the office as she sat at her desk just outside the door, the memories of being so close to her father, across his knees, smelling his aftershave and feeling the sting of his hand on her flesh through the thin cotton panties coursed through her. The emotions of excitement, love and fear all seemed to end up in one place, her vagina.

Emma resisted the urge to cry out "Coming, Daddy" as she did when she was little, as she rose from her chair and prepared to enter her boss's office. Only a brief "Yes, Sir", with eyes looking straight at him was allowed, as she closed and locked the office door behind her. Although it was late and no other person was still working on the 17th floor Emma had been instructed to lock the door every time and so she did.

She would swear she could feel the moisture from her walls begin to form rivulets that would join together, and like so many mountain streams joined to form a river that cascades over boulders to reach its end point, would become a flow that spilled from between her nether lips and flowed down her thighs or created a pool wherever she sat.

As she looked at her boss sitting behind his desk in his suit, tie still knotted at his neck, leaning back in his chair, hands behind his head and his eyes looking her up and down, all thoughts of her father slipped away from her consciousness and the warmth became a fire within her because she knew this man, her boss Jack Kelley was here for her only.

Still blonde, though with less bright yellow than in her youth and more golden brown, blue eyed and considered pretty by both men and women alike, Emma was a 42 year old mother of two who had worked at Enduron Corporation for the last 8 years and the last 9 months as the executive secretary to Jack Kelley. In her bare feet she stood about 5' 5" and weighed just under 125 pounds.

She still had an attractive figure with her relatively firm B cup breasts, a noticeable waistline that flared a bit to her softly curved hips and an ass that filled out a pair of jeans very nicely. Emma and Jack had worked together from time to time during the 18 months prior to her current assignment when she was part of an administrative assistant pool that was assigned on a needs basis to men like Jack.

She was born Emma Catherine Richardson, youngest child and only daughter of an 'old money' family in the Northeast. For a time her name changed. She was married to Charles A. (Chad) Allerton, son of another 'old money' family in the Northeast. As pleasant and story book as that union may sound it was, in reality, an embarrassment to both families. For Chad had gotten Emma pregnant shortly after her 19th birthday, the summer between her senior year of high school and freshman year of college.

Now, of course it does take two to tango, or, as in this case, produce a child, and perhaps the responsibility, or blame should be shared by both. But in the case of most of the Richardsons and even more than a few Allerton minds, the blame rested squarely on Chad.

Had there been an impartial observer at the time an accurate account of how much alcohol was provided to Emma without her understanding and how much peer pressure was applied that night down by the lake might have been available and supporting the opinion that a greater percentage of the cause of Emma's pregnancy should be assigned to Chad. But there were no 'eyewitnesses' and the abbreviated accounts of what truly transpired that muggy summer night left many questions unanswered.

For her part, Emma shared very little of what she could remember of the party and the time leading up to the 'event' behind the canoe shack at the far end of the beach.

Both families wanted as little attention paid as possible and because Emma had effectively hidden her situation until she was well into her third month hastily made plans did not allow for terminating the pregnancy, which was everyone's initial choice of action. Sadly, Emma was not allowed a voice in this discussion though ultimately she carried the child to term, which was her first and only choice.

Chad, for his part, stood up and 'did the right thing' under withering pressure from both his father and soon to be father in law. Emma and Chad were married in a quiet ceremony with only a few family members present on the Richardson's back lawn (the manicured part of which covered more than three acres with the surrounding gardens covering another two) just before Labor Day.

The two families backed the newlyweds with equal sums of cash, went in together to purchase a home for the new family in a southern state more than a thousand miles from the homes and towns both families had owned for generations. Chad began college at 'an up and coming' school down south instead of the Ivy League college from which all of his family had graduated and Emma, who had been admitted to one of the prestigious 'sister schools' of the Ivy League stayed at home.

The young couple added a daughter a few years later and at 21 Emma was a housewife and mother of two under the age of three. With just a twinge of melancholy every now and then over what might have been, Emma made the best of her station and raised the children as best she could.

Her marriage to Chad did not survive a decade. For a 29th birthday present Chad served her with divorce papers, preferring to move to Seattle with the 22 year old flight attendant he had been seeing for the past six months. The Allertons deeded their half of the house over to the Richardsons and did not ask for any of the original money they had provided back. Emma had a nine year old, a six year old, a house, a car, $48,051 in the Bank and a high school diploma.

Her first job was in a cramped, noisy office of a trucking company the next town over. Working mothers hours between dropping the kids off at school and picking them up in the afternoon she was able to scratch out enough money to feed all three of them, cloth both the children and only tap into her savings every month. Within a year the balance was hovering just over $40 thousand and she knew things could not continue this way.

Emma parlayed the one year of experience at the trucking company into a job in a medical practice, working with the billing of patients and their insurance companies. Though the new job included a substantial upgrade in pay, she now worked a 40 hour week and so a good portion of the increase was swallowed up by the cost of child care.

Within six months Emma had streamlined the billing and collection process tremendously, ensuring that the insurance companies paid the majority of the bills on the first submission (rather the previous case of rejecting the submissions once or twice for errors) significantly accelerating the cash flow of the practice and reducing the back office staffing need.

As pleased as the doctors were with her performance, they shortsightedly decided that as the most recent hire she would be the one to go. Fortunately, one of the three physicians (the one who did not hit on her repeatedly and make blatant sexual comments to her) felt guilty and phoned a friend of his at Enduron. Emma started there as a receptionist the following week.

James P. "Jack" Kelley arrived at Enduron with a well deserved reputation as a high achiever. In his previous four positions Jack had taken a weak or failing team, group, division, product line, whatever and turned it around. He was known as one of those old school "can do" guys who gave his employer his best effort and his track record spoke for itself.

Starting as a small software company, originally with just the four MIT graduates who wrote the first software, Enduron had grown in the past 30 years into a corporate conglomerate through mergers, acquisitions, new divisions and spinoffs. Now a well known name in the tech world and a closely watched stock, Enduron had operations in 31 of the 50 states and 47 other countries around the world.

The 20 story downtown building Enduron occupied in this east coast city was originally owned by another company that Enduron bought. The building served as the regional headquarters for a number of products and services. Enduron occupied 12 of the 20 floors in the building including the 20th floor.

Jack was initially brought on to revamp a failing sales team that covered a quarter of the US and all of Central America. Installed in his small office, though one with a window, on the 11th floor Jack discovered that to truly fix the sales team the product line and product strategy needed to be revamped. A promotion to Product Director quickly followed, along with a move to a new office on the 14th floor.

Jack first noticed Emma a few weeks into his tenure at Enduron. He was sitting at a table in the cafeteria on the 4th floor and saw her walk in, purchase a yogurt to go with whatever she had in her brown paper bag and her sports water bottle. She wasn't dressed in a manner that would attract attention, wearing a several years old dress that fell below her knees and appeared to be one size too large. She wore almost no makeup and her hair was pulled back in a loose bun. Jack almost made the mistake of thinking 'librarian?' to himself but then she looked up.

Even with little makeup, or rather because of little makeup her face was pretty, and in Jack's personal opinion, very pretty. Her eyes were the real key, though. They were alive, dancing in her head reflecting intelligence and radiating something Jack couldn't put his finger on. Compassion? Understanding? Warmth?

With his move to the 14th floor, where Emma was now part of the administrative pool, their paths crossed almost daily, especially when she was assigned to one of Jack's projects. Jack recognized very quickly that Emma was the best of the bunch from the pool and requested her for every need he had, large or small. He didn't get her every time he asked but she began to be assigned to him more than anyone else. It was clear to Jack that every time she was involved the result was measurably better than with another member of the pool, or at least his workload was greatly reduced.

The first time Emma was assigned to Jack she arrived at his office at quarter to eight on a Monday morning. She was the first to do that, since the 'official' workday did not start until 8:30 or even 9:00 for most of the hourly staff. Emma had realized that since Jack was often in his office by 7:30 and generally no later than 8:00 arriving early made a good first impression.

That day Emma looked the same as the first day Jack saw her in the cafeteria. In fact, she was wearing the exact same dress and wore her hair in the exact same loose bun as she had when Jack first caught sight of her.

Emma dressed that way for two reasons. First, even though money was far less of an issue these days, she still did not spend much money on her own clothes. Second, when she had upgraded her wardrobe a bit during those early days as a receptionist at Enduron nearly every sales guy in the company and many outside, hit on her repeatedly, whether they were married or not. It wasn't just office flirting or banter including sexual double entendre, it was pure out and out male, testosterone fueled sexual advances.

Once she 'toned down' her work attire the onslaught slowed to a trickle though she still averaged 3 a month.

As Emma walked into Jack's office on the 14th floor that first time almost two and a half years ago something clicked between them right away. Each saw it in the other's eyes. That they were both very intelligent was immediately apparent, but there was something more. For Jack it was that still undefined 'thing' that radiated from Emma's eyes. For Emma there was strength that shone through Jack's eyes.

"Mr. Kelley?" Emma asked as she knocked on the door frame.

"Jack, please", Kelley replied as he stood and moved from behind his desk extending his hand and his face broke into a warm, genuine smile.

Emma did a quick assessment of the man before her as she shook his hand. Mostly grey with just a little 'pepper left in the salt', a face that wasn't handsome but attractive in the way the lines at the corners of his eyes and mouth crinkled when he smiled. A polite handshake that recognized it was a woman he was shaking hands with but not some wimpy dead fish kind of deal.

She guessed he was in his mid to late 50's and no wedding ring on his hand. Divorced? A player? The usual warning bells weren't sounding in Emma's head. Then Jack did something that surprised Emma.

As he gestured for her to take one of the chairs in front of his desk he took the other one! He did not go back and sit behind his desk, and he didn't try to move his chair closer to her, in fact he moved it back a few inches to give her more space.

That one little move spoke to Emma and she recognized this was a confident (no need to lord his position over her from behind his desk) and respectful (no need to invade her space and make her feel uncomfortable) man. She liked him immediately.

A number of months and projects later Emma was once again assigned to Jack. They had developed an easy, efficient and professional working relationship and their first meeting for this project echoed that original one.

One night, while on this project Emma was at her cube working late. Jack was in his office working late as well. One of the sales guys involved in this project stopped by Emma's cube and began to make small talk. 'Here it comes', she thought to herself.

The guy was, in fact, one of the first to try and pick her up when she first started at Enduron. He hadn't aged well in the past five years and despite being in his early thirties his male pattern baldness was clearly evident and he was going soft all over. Despite the gold band on his left hand, he tried an approach that was almost a carbon copy of the one he used on the new receptionist those years ago.

Rather than accept Emma's gentle but firm no thank you the guy persisted. He became more aggressive, louder and more boorish as he refused to give up. Finally, he resorted to shouting several demeaning comments at Emma and stalking away.

Jack could not hear the words but he did hear an increasingly heated one sided conversation outside his door. He rose from his chair and walked to the doorway to see a sobbing woman disappear into the Women's room and the elevator door close. He waited. In a few minutes the rest room door opened and he watched Emma walk back to her cube.

Jack made his way to her cube and as she looked up at him on his approach he swung a chair from a neighboring cube around and sat to face her.

"Are you all right?" he asked softly.

Emma tried to maintain her composure and did a fine job, though her eyes did tear up a little for just a moment. "I'm fine, Jack. Thank you."

"I could not hear any one specific word but that sounded rather unprofessional to me."

Emma smiled weakly, partly from relief that Jack had not heard the terms the guy spit at her. "Oh, it was nothing, really."

"No," jack replied, his tone still soft and reassuring, "that wasn't nothing, that was something. And it was clearly something unpleasant to you, so please tell me what just occurred here."

"Oh, it's all over now. No need to bother yourself", Emma said waving her hand in front of her, trying to literally wave off the episode.

"Emma, it was something and it wasn't right, so please tell me what happened." Jack said, obviously not satisfied with Emma's assessment of the episode.

"It's nothing, just some guy making a mistake thinking I might like to go out with him or something. It happens all the time."

Jack's face changed before her eyes. His calm, steady look quickly morphed into wide eyed shock and then furrowed brow concentration. Emma had seen that furrowed brow intensity before as they worked and she really liked it. This time it worried her. "Are you telling me he was trying to 'hook up' with you?" he asked, actually making the quotation fingers as he said the words.

She hesitated; she stammered a little just once, "Well, yeah, I guess you could put it that way".

Jack sat back in his chair. The furrowed brow intensity changed again into stone faced seriousness. "Who was it?" he asked slowly, his voice betraying his effort to remain calm.

"Oh, I don't want to say. I don't want to get anyone in trouble." Emma nervously replied.

Jack said three words. He said them firmly, calmly with a pause between each one. "Who...was...it?"

Now Emma recognized determination in Jack's face. She spoke the man's name.

Jack immediately returned to his soothing tone and asked her if she was all right, did she need him to walk her to her car or anything like that. Emma could feel his genuine concern.

"Please don't report him", she pleaded. "He has a family."

Jack responded with a "Hmph", and then "you didn't answer my questions."

Emma couldn't help but smile. "You are focused, aren't you? No, I don't need you do walk me to my car, but thank you for the kind offer. I honestly appreciate it."

Sweetness, that's what it was. That was what radiated from Emma and her eyes. She was a sweet human being. Unpretentious, gentle, smart, kind, and sweet. Something in Jack was released or altered or, something, but he practically fell in love with Emma Richardson right then and there.

Emma was confused by what she saw on Jack's face now. She couldn't place the emotion, but it was something soft and deep and honest. For some reason that she could not explain she felt her nipples get hard and moisture begin to seep inside her. It was the first time that had happened to her at work, ever! Jack said something else to her as he stood and swung the chair back into the other cube.

She watched him as he walked away and saw him for the first time as something more than just a Product Director for Enduron Corporation. As his back receded from her she took note of how his shoulders filled out his shirt, how his back tapered from those shoulders to his waist, and how his pants fit nicely over his butt. 'Oh my goodness' she thought to herself, bringing her hand to her mouth to stifle a girlish giggle.