Office Hours

A/N: This chapter didn't sit too well with me. I felt as though Haytham's part was a bit clique-ish. I don't know, what do you guys think? I love hearing from you all! :D

I thought the press would have buggered off after a week without any news of my personal life, but it didn't seem so when I got to the office that next Monday. I had gotten out of my car only to be swarmed with reporters yelling at me, cameras flashing in my face, and the occasional "accidental" hand on my ass from an admirer present.

"Mr Kenway!" They would yell.

"Sir, can I have a word?"

"What is your opinion-?"

"Would you like to speak-?"

"Is your secret woman a girl for hire?"

Wait...what?

I should have ignored the person who asked, but I spoke before my mind agreed to the words. "I beg your pardon?" The man repeated his question, although a bit hesitant. I wanted to strangle him, but common sense kicked in. At least some of it. "I can assure you she is no prostitute. My amour has more class than that."

The reaction was almost instantaneous. Voices got louder, cameras flashed a billion times brighter, and people pushed far too close in my personal space. Thank God security came when they did, or else I might have never of made it into the building. When the guards escorted me inside, I felt as though I had escaped from the gates of Hell itself. Never had I felt so relieved to be at work than at that moment, away from peering eyes and bothersome persons. I had made it to the elevator, hit the button to my floor and slumped against the metal walls. It was only nine-thirty in the morning, and I already felt the beginnings of my mid-afternoon headache.

The doors opened and my secretary stood up from her desk in front my office to greet me. "Good morning, Mr Kenway."

"If only it were," I answered back, striding toward the office doors and promptly closing them behind me. Flicking a stray hair away from my face, I made my way to the windows overlooking the city and looked down, seeing that the reporters still hadn't left. Abstergo's security was trying to keep them at bay, pushing them back and shouting into earpieces, attempting to contact the plod.

I sat down in my chair and ran a hand over my face. I didn't need to be bothered with the press at the moment. I had dozens of papers scattered all over my desktop, and they weren't going to make those papers disappear anytime soon.

Reaching into my pocket, I took out my cell phone and immediately started yelling into it when the lines connected. "Hickey!"

Thomas' voice sounded slurred, as if he had been drinking like a fish...again. "Wot is it, 'Ayfam?"

"Waking your drunken arse up before I knock it out myself," I threatened.

"Relax, relax," he said, this time his voice a bit clearer. "Now tell me wot you want."

I turned in my chair to look out the windows, my irritation building as I saw that the reporters still hadn't left their places outside my office building. "Get these goddamn dogs out of my personal life. And don't mess it up this time. Do whatever you need to do; I don't care if you have to lie to the Queen if need be. Just do it," I hissed, hanging up the phone.

Looking at the documents on my desk, I began to organize them. Might as well get some work done instead of sulking around.

...

It was around two-thirty when my secretary knocked at my door.

"Come in."

I still hadn't looked up from my work when Veronica popped her cracked the door open and said, "Mr Kenway, you have a visitor."

I held back a sigh. "Tell them to come back later. As you can see, I am busy at the moment." It wasn't a lie; I was currently going over the research results over Abstergo's new toy, the Animus.

"She said it was important; that she was a researcher from Solstice."

That piqued my interest. I sat in my chair, mentally debating with myself before I said, "Let her in."

I heard her feet shuffle on the carpet as she stepped to the side, letting Ziio come through. I glanced up and saw she was dressed in a red blouse and black pencil skirt; her hair was pinned into a bun on the side of her head and her lips coloured a deep blood red. Pumps added to her already tall figure, making her taller than Veronica. Ziio usually dressed like this for her job at Solstice, but something about her seemed different; more seductive. Perhaps it was the way her eyes smirked at me through her lashes, or how her blouse was unbuttoned to reveal her cleavage more than it should have. By the way she was looking at me, I was about to find out.

I stood up from my seat and walked toward Ziio, stopping in front of her. I looked her in the eye and saw a mixture of emotions in their deep pools. "Did she say why she was here?" I inquired, not breaking eye contact with the woman in front of me.

"She said something about a proposition that was to be discussed with you from her research department. She insisted that she talk to you in private." Veronica eyes narrowed when she said this. "Without an appointment."

It was then that Ziio smirked and I found my trousers starting to feel a bit too tight. "Of course. Forgive me, Ms Chambers, but I did agree to meet with this woman." I saw my secretary open her mouth to argue, but cut her off. "You can go take your break now, Ms Chambers. I feel as though this might take some time..."

When the door slammed shut, Ziio threw herself on me. Her lips collided with mine while she fisted my shirt. I placed my hands around her waist and drew her closer, my tongue pushing past her lips and into her mouth. I drew back and rested my forehead against hers, breathing deeply as I tried to regain my thoughts.

"I think your secretary has the hots for you," she said, her breath warm on my skin. "I almost had to punch her to let me through." My only response was to pull her in for another deep kiss.

"What are you doing here?" I finally asked, my other hand running up and down Ziio's back.

Her hands left their place on my shirt to travel up and down my front. "I got off of work early and was on my way to the gym when I passed the building," she whispered in my ear and started to unbutton my shirt. Then she added, "And then I thought, "Why go through all that sweat and pain for nothing, when I can get the same results and lace it with pleasure."

I looked at Ziio and saw what I was feeling. We both had missed each other while I was away in London, and being apart for the week only made the separation anxiety worse. It was agreed upon that we needed to focus on our respective careers since we were clearly slacking, but it was obvious that plan wasn't working either. She would creep into my mind at night like a recurring dream, teasing me with her beautiful smile and soft hands. But as lovely it was to mentally picture Ziio, I would wake up and find that she was not at my side, and the dream already fading to the back of my mind.

"What did you have in mind?"

Her answer was to put her hands on the back of my neck and pull me in for another kiss. My right hand grabbed her by her hips and pulled her closer while the left cupped her thigh and was steadily creeping up, taking her skirt with it.

"This has always been a fantasy of mine," Ziio admitted between kisses. "Having sex in the office." Suddenly, she stopped her movements. "Except..." She moved away from me, much to my disappointment, and approached my desk. I only saw her smirk before she swiped everything off my desk, save my computer. I grimaced when I heard papers and pins clatter to the floor, and the phone following them. I was about to reprimand her, but she hopped on the now cleared top, crossed her legs, and beckoned me with her index finger.

I was on her in the next instant. I immediately got to work pulling up her skirt while she got to work on my trousers, undoing its buckle. Ziio's legs wrapped around my middle once free of their constraint and pulled me closer to her. I could feel the warmth emitting from her core, as I bet she could feel my eagerness pressing into her through her underwear.

Shagging in my office? Why not; I'm willing to try anything once.

I licked my lips and looked at Ziio. Her eyes were closed as I continued to rub my hand along her long legs, occasionally squeezing them which would result in a small noise from the woman on my desk.

Just as I was about to swoop in on Ziio's neck, a loud knock on the doors interrupted us. I quickly untangled myself from my love and started to rebutting my shirt and attempting to stuff the bulge in my pants back into my trousers with much difficulty. Ziio only looked on with amusement as the knocking persisted. She already had slipped her skirt back down her legs and buttoned up her blouse. She was now in the process of fixing her hair when I fastened the buckle around my waist and cleared my throat.

"'Ayfam?" Just bleeding great; it seems as though I was to be caught almost having a hump by no other than Thomas Hickey.

"I've got some-" He had let himself in (habit I was now going to break him out of), and stopped in his tracks. Thomas looked at Ziio, who was still sitting on my desk with her legs crossed trying to look as if nothing happened, and then at me. I turned my head to the side and refused to meet his questioning look, knowing full well that he was going to give me hell the second Ziio left hearing range.

Hickey smiled in a devilish way before asking, "Should I go wait outside then while you two have at it?"

Before I could tell him yes, Ziio hopped off the desk and started walking toward the door. "That's quite alright. I was just leaving."

Your clothes on the floor, I thought to myself.

"I'll see you..." She trailed off as she walked past Thomas.

"Tonight," I finished, answering her question. "After work."

Ziio closed the doors behind her, leaving me with my associate.

I finally looked at Thomas and saw an all knowing grin on his face. He stepped forward and shook his head back and forth. "Bonking at work are we?" Looking back at the door as if he could still see Ziio, he whistled. "She's something else. I'm guessin' she's your mystery girl, the one the news networks 'ave been jumping on for a while now?"

For the second time that day, I was already tempted to kill a man. Instead of answering his question, I asked, "You aren't ever going to leave this alone, are you?"

"'Fraid not."

I rolled my head back in frustration, praying to whatever god was out there to make it night time already.

A/N: I was right; this chapter REALLY didn't sit with me. *facepalms* If you excuse me, I'm going to go crawl in a hole and stay there for a while.