"Ms. Randolph? They're ready for you." Melanie wiped her sweaty palms on her dress slacks as she stood, desperately willing her hands to be dry and steady for the introductory handshakes with her potential future employers. The receptionist, an older woman with curly gray hair, half moon reading glasses, and a lavender cardigan, gave her an encouraging smile as she opened the door. "You're going to love them," she whispered. "Good luck." Melanie gave the woman a grateful smile, and her shoulders relaxed fractionally. She took a deep breath and stepped into the room, hearing the door close gently behind her.
Rather than the nondescript conference room she had expected for her interview with a panel of three LevTech executives, she was surprised to find herself in a large, sumptuously appointed private office. The first thing Melanie noticed was that the brown leather chair behind the imposing mahogany desk was empty, and the second thing she noticed was a faint but incredibly compelling scent in the air. She inhaled deeply, flipping through the floral-spice-musk catalog of scents in her brain, but identification was frustratingly elusive. Vanilla? Cinnamon? Anise? Lavender? It was none of those scents but had qualities of each. It was both sharp and warm, and whatever it was, it was making her want to discover the source of the smell and bury her face in it.
A quiet laugh to her left jolted Melanie out of her daze. She turned to discover an arrangement of three brown leather sofas around a square coffee table in the same mahogany as the desk. Three men, presumably her interviewers, lounged on the sofas, drinks in hand. Melanie blinked. Surely it was a trick of the light, but the pale beverage in the glasses looked like it was...purple?
Then the men stood to greet her and all thoughts fled from her head as she watched them unfold to staggering heights and move in her direction. All three of them had to be over 6'4", and all of them had broad shoulders that filled out their tailored suits to perfection. The man in the center had deep brown skin and dark, compelling eyes. The two on either side had lighter complexions that contrasted almost startlingly to their black hair, but their eyes were an almost exact match to the darker skinned man, so dark their pupils almost blended into their irises. The man on the right wore his hair long, and had it pulled back in a ponytail that fell to the center of his back. The one on the left had shorter, gently curling hair and a dimpled mouth currently quirked in a sardonic smile. His eyebrows rose, and Melanie realized she had been staring at the men for far too long while the man in the center had begun to speak. She frantically rewound the last few moments in her head and realized that he had thanked her for coming and said they were happy she could make it on such short notice.
Melanie had gotten the email that morning from a headhunting agency she had worked with in the past—their client had a vacancy matching her skillset that they needed to fill urgently. Could she come in for a one o'clock interview? It had seemed like a godsend—she wasn't even sure if the agency knew she had been laid off just days previously from her job in communications for a tech startup that had been purchased and promptly dismantled by a megacorporation. Melanie needed to find work ASAP, so she said yes to the interview without even knowing which company the agency was representing.
She couldn't believe it when the client turned out to be LevTech, a company that had burst onto the scene just six months previously with the release of a beyond cutting edge smartphone and quickly risen to compete with the biggest names in the industry. They were notoriously secretive and their CEO, Levander Black, had never even been photographed by the media, let alone interviewed. Only their COO appeared at the company's occasional brief press conferences to announce a new product or feature.
And now the Chief Operating Officer himself was standing right in front of her, Melanie was shocked to realize.
Shay Prince is interviewing me for a job,
she thought faintly. She recognized him as the dark-skinned man who had just thanked her for coming. "It's no trouble at all," Melanie managed to choke out only a couple beats too late. She even remembered to smile.
"I'm Shay Prince," he said, engulfing her hand in his. Instead of shaking it, he held it in his firm grasp for several seconds, his eyes seeming to hold hers captive. A strange, almost electric pulse shivered through her. Then he broke her gaze and turned to the long-haired man on his right, passing her hand to him. "Dax," the man said, smiling warmly and grasping her hand in both of his. She felt his fingertip glide along the delicate skin of her wrist before he released her. "Link," said the third man, claiming her hand and teasingly leaning over to kiss the back. She couldn't help but stare at his soft, full lips as they briefly met her skin. Then he released her and gestured to the sofas. "Please, sit."
Melanie sank onto one of the sofas and took a shuddering breath that she hoped the men didn't notice. With the breath came another dose of the amazing smell, which seemed stronger now. She still couldn't tell where it was coming from. She was feeling a bit flushed and knew it wasn't because the thermostat was set too high. Normally she would have been offended by such a flirtatious and blatantly unprofessional greeting in a job interview, but now she found herself wishing that one of the men would sit next to her so she could feel his body heat and maybe contrive to rest her thigh against his. She could feel the slight moisture from Link's kiss lingering on her hand, seeming to heat her skin and sink down into her blood. She fought the impulse to bring it to her mouth to lick the spot. What was wrong with her? No matter that these men weren't adhering to the business norms Melanie was used to, they had been very polite and welcoming and she didn't want to blow this opportunity. Especially when she was sitting across from the second most powerful person at one of the world's most powerful companies.
She gave a small sigh that she wasn't sure was relief or disappointment when Dax and Link sat together on the sofa to her left while Mr. Prince sat across from her. She frowned when she realized that only Mr. Prince had given his last name, but this
was
the tech industry, after all, which skewed much more informal than the rest of the business world. She set the thought aside when Link, who was sitting closest to her, took a rocks glass from a tray in the center of the table and splashed in a generous amount of liquid from a decanter before passing it to her. She realized it was the purple drink she had glimpsed earlier. It was a cloudy, opaque lilac color and was unlike anything Melanie had encountered before. "Don't worry," Link said, smile deepening his dimples, "it's not alcoholic."
She took a polite sip and noticed a very subtle flavor a bit like honey and lavender and something smoky she couldn't put her finger on. It slid smoothly down the back of her throat and in its wake came a wave of relaxation that calmed her nerves considerably.
"Ms. Randolph," Mr. Prince began, "while we urgently need to fill this position, the person we hire must be perfectly suited for this very unique role. We may ask some questions that seem a bit unconventional, but it is essential that we are absolutely certain you are a good candidate before allowing you to proceed to a final interview." He caught and held her gaze. "It's important that you be totally open and honest about yourself. Can you do that for us, Melanie?"
At the sound of her name, Melanie felt another jolt reverberate through her. It settled at her core and her clit throbbed. As Mr. Prince looked deep into her eyes, she felt that she would be willing to do anything he asked. The thought was a little disturbing.
"Melanie." The sound of her name drew her gaze left to Dax. "You're safe here, none of us would ever harm you. Of course you are free to exit the interview at any time if you're uncomfortable, but we hope you will see it through to the end. You're the most promising candidate for this position we've come across in quite some time. Will you give us a chance, Melanie?" His warm, trustworthy eyes and mellow voice seemed to reach inside her mind and soothe her misgivings, a little like the lilac drink. Remembering the glass in her hand, she took another sip.
"Of course," she said.
"Good girl," Dax said, and Melanie had to stifle a gasp as another shock went straight to her clit. She shifted on the sofa, trying to find an unobtrusive way to apply some pressure to it.
"Melanie," Mr. Prince spoke again, "you have a very impressive CV and portfolio."
Melanie straightened and forced herself to focus as the interview headed to more familiar territory. "Thank you," she said. "I think my expertise would greatly benefit LevTech."
"However," Mr. Prince continued, and Melanie deflated a little. "We're looking for someone with a specific set of characteristics that a CV can only hint at. You're certainly intelligent, hard working, and ambitious. But are you willing to do what it takes to earn your place here?" His stern expression and penetrating eyes made her squirm. "Yes, sir," she said, and saw the corners of his mouth twitch in the faintest hint of a satisfied smile. Melanie was suddenly overcome by the belief that if she could get him to fully smile, she would get the job. And she was increasingly certain that she
needed
