Chapter 1

I earned a technical degree in college but after a few years working for a major company, I went back part-time and got my MBA. The reason? Well, I was promoted into a managerial position that, while it still used my technical background, made me realize that I needed much more business and management knowledge, especially for my future with the company.

I was moved around every four or five years, each time with a promotion, taking on more and more responsibility and the latest of these came to me when I was asked to take over the company's office in Singapore.

I, by now, was having much more contact with customers and this office was an important source of revenue for the corporation. So, I knew it was a position of trust and responsibility that I was being offered and I eagerly accepted it.

I had been to that particular office many times, there were about one hundred and ten employees, many clerical, quite a few technical and some marketing and sales people as well. I would head the entire operation with a small staff of managers I already knew well.

So, it was a happy promotion, one that I readily accepted, after all, I liked the area, its food, culture and people, so that part was easy.

Also easy was the fact that I was basically unencumbered, without a wife and children.

It's not that I never took an interest in women, it was more that I was a busy guy and, while I did date, it was sporadic and never really led to a permanent relationship.

So, I went to Singapore, knowing that the assignment would probably be for only two to three years.

My immediate staff were all Singaporeans, mostly women, most of them fairly young, mainly under forty with many under thirty.

My direct assistant, what would be my administrative assistant, was a very capable young woman named Joy Lim who, I knew from personnel records, was twenty-seven.

Like many there, she was short, quite short by our standards, with dark black hair down past her shoulders, sometimes in a ponytail or a short braid. Joy was quite a pretty young woman and her English was excellent which, I'm sure helped her in her career with us. She often spoke with our people stateside and was held in high esteem by all.

Quite a few of these young women dressed in ways that made their small stature stand out, complete with small, tight skirts that made their legs look longer, I suppose. Their tops were often somewhat sheer and they often wore a contrasting bra that tended to show through.

Joy, in particular, wore tiny skirts and often white or ivory blouses with a black or navy bra underneath, usually one that left the tops of her breasts exposed, not quite to her nipples but not far from it, either.

That suited me just fine, I was enjoying working in an office full of cute Asian beauties, mostly in high heels and bare, light-brown-skinned legs. She would often come in my office and sit opposite me, sorting through the mail and memos, faxes and emails, taking notes as we went along.

I'm sure she must have noticed, more than once, when she shifted in her chair, that my eyes darted downward to get a glimpse of her panties and I often wondered if it wasn't somewhat deliberate. She would always catch my eye and smile then go right on with what we were doing.

I was there about a month and a half when I arranged to take my immediate staff out for drinks on a Friday after work to provide them all a chance to get to know their new American boss a little better and for me to know them all a little bit out away from the office.

I had thought to take everyone to the bar in question directly from our office but the girls got together and asked me if they could go home first and change into something more 'after-hours' and meet, say at seven. I saw nothing wrong with that and agreed; better to keep the staff happy than not, right?

So, as I sat at our table for eight, they started coming in and I immediately saw why these young women wanted to go home and get ready for a night out ... they were dressed in what I would describe as 'especially-not-for-the-office' outfits.

I'm no expert on women's clothing but if there's still a thing called a micro skirt, that was what they were mostly wearing. Many had low-cut tops on and high heels, some in stilettos. They, of course, they were all petite and sexy-looking, ready for a night out.

Then Joy came in wearing a tiny black leather skirt with a little, white gauzy cropped top that, when she moved just right, showed the bottom of her lacy black bra and a lovely, smooth tea-colored stomach down to her abdomen. Her hair was in a short braid and her lips were a glossy, lush cerise.

I looked over at the long bar opposite our table and every male eye was on this bevy of diminutive Asian cuties as they filled up our table. They all knew they were hot-looking and were loving it, giggling with each other in a mixed patois of English, Chinese and Malay that I heard a lot around the office.

Joy Lim sat next to me, her skirt riding up, showing the very tops of her thighs, as we all ordered drinks and passed around bowls of salty bar snacks.

Everyone seemed to have fun, there was some drinking of course, and some of the girls danced with others in the bar, so slowly our table emptied and at the end, about ten-thirty, there was just Joy and me. I paid the bill then we went out to the taxi stand and there was a single cab.

I told her to take it, that I would wait, but she told me that we lived near each other so we should share the cab.