That one night was all that we had together, but it was still etched there in my brain. I could remember it as well as any other memory I had, and then some. Every detail, every feeling, and every taste lingered in my head.
I tried not to think about that, though. Especially not now. I had to keep it together and be professional. I was her boss now, and employee relationships were strictly not allowed. She was completely off-limits.
That was a good thing, anyway. I hadn’t forgiven her yet for disappearing like she had, and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to. Even if she had been available, I knew better than to start anything with her anytime soon.
To distract myself, I flipped through her résumé, humming in interest as I saw the various positions she had worked in the years since I had last seen her. I had to admit it was pretty impressive. She had worked her way up with the same company she’d had the internship with, all the way to a similar position as the one she would be taking on here. George had definitely had a good reason for hiring her.
“Why’d you leave?” I asked, looking up at her.
Rian sighed and shrugged. “You know how it goes,” she said. “Corporate merger, company downsizing. I was the one to get cut.”
I nodded. “Fair enough,” I murmured, looking back at her résumé. That made plenty of sense, but it didn’t explain what she was doing back here in Nebraska. There were other companies there in New York. She had made it very clear she had no desire to stay here any longer than she had to.
That in itself made me leery of agreeing to go through with the training process. What if we put in all the effort to bring her into the role here and she then up and quit?
I wouldn’t know unless I asked her. I looked up at her. “If you don’t mind me asking, what the hell are you doing back here?” The words came out a bit stronger than I had intended, but I hoped she realized that I wasn’t playing around here. I wanted a serious answer from her. Her employment here was contingent upon it, in fact.
George may have hired her on, but if there was one thing that I wasn’t going to do as a CEO, it was waste my time. If she didn’t plan on sticking around, I wasn’t going to put in the effort to train her.
Rian looked away for a moment, but when she looked back at me, there was enough of a challenge in her eyes that I could tell she wasn’t lying to me. “Got tired of life in the big city, I guess,” she said.
I wanted to believe her. To be honest, I knew how smart she was, and I didn’t want to send her out of there before she had even really started. At the same time, though, there was something about the way she said it that sounded hollow to my ears. No, there was definitely more to it.
I had to decide whether I was willing to take a chance on her. If I was willing to trust her. I never wanted to trust her again.
At the end of the day, though, I had to accept the fact that George had hired her. Besides, we needed her, and as much as I didn’t want to waste time training someone who was only there for the short term, I also knew that I didn’t currently have the time to start interviewing other candidates for the position.
I started going over the company protocols with her, then took her on a tour of the office. As we walked around, I had to stop myself from watching the way her ass swayed in that sexy pencil skirt she was wearing. Jesus.
I couldn’t possibly do anything about the attraction. And at the end of the day, I didn’t want to. Still, I couldn’t deny the fact that she looked damn good. It was definitely going to be hard to keep my mind on the job with her walking around the building.
What else could I do, though? I definitely couldn’t fire her now, or she would claim that I had done so out of some sort of sexual harassment. I wasn’t sure what the rules would be on that since I had slept with her long before I became her boss, but I knew that things would definitely be better if I found some flaw to the way she worked prior to firing her.
I had to quit thinking about her ass, her silky skin, everything else. I had to focus on work and keep things strictly professional. Suddenly, that felt like the most difficult thing I had ever faced with this company—and I had faced a lot on my road to becoming the company’s CEO.
Chapter 2
Rian
I knew I was staring, but I couldn’t help myself. I had never expected to see Wes Brown again after college. I mean, there had been part of me that had definitely wondered what he was up to. I had thought about looking for him online a few times and maybe reconnecting. Just to see what he was doing with his life. I had decided against it each time, though.
It wasn’t that I didn’t care. But it definitely wasn’t any of my business, and in any case, I had enough on my plate without inviting trouble into my life.
Now, though, I was kicking myself. If I had known he worked here, I would never have applied. I would never have even considered this company as a possibility. Finding out he was my new boss had me in full panic mode.
I had come to Nebraska looking for a fresh start. I had spent the last few years being ground down to nothing by my job, only to be tossed aside with no consideration when the company merged with a bigger one. I had come back to Nebraska because I still had some friends here from my college days, but I had thought that Wes would be long gone by now. It had never even occurred to me that he might work somewhere in town and that I might cross paths with him again.
After all, he had wanted that city internship just as badly as I did. It was part of why I hadn’t told him I had gotten it in the end. I had been afraid to admit to him that not only was I leaving him behind, but I was also doing it so that I could take the position he had wanted most in the world.
If I had known he was going to be my boss, there were no ties in the world that would have brought me back here. Even if the rent on my new townhome was a fraction of what I had paid for what was practically a closet in the city. Even if I was lucky enough to not have to start at the bottom here and work my way back up again. Even if this new position paid me well enough to actually live.
As much as I’d wanted to go to New York City, I had grown kind of tired of the never-ending cycle of go, go, go. I was a different person now than I had been when I’d set off for the city.
For one thing, I was no longer living just for myself.
Coming back to Nebraska gave me the chance to spend a little more time with my daughter, and to raise her in an environment that I hoped would be a lot safer, quieter, and overall just better for her. I had spent a lot of time, when I first started looking into moving, researching different school districts and different opportunities for Ronny. I was sure this would be good for us, even though there was a part of me that still felt terrible for ripping my six-year-old away from all of her friends.
Of course, when I moved back here, I never imagined I would end up working for Ronny’s dad. Ronny’s dad who didn’t even know that his daughter existed.
Seven years ago, it had seemed almost like a no-brainer to keep Wes out of things. He was halfway across the country from me, and anyway, we had never been in a relationship. It was just a one-night thing, the culmination of years of competition, leading to a blindingly passionate affair.
But that was all it had been: a one-night thing. I wasn’t going to bog down his life with the knowledge that he had fathered a child. I knew that I could handle things on my own, and anyway, I wasn’t sure that Wes and I could put aside our differences for long enough to raise a child together. Better I just handle things on my own.
Only that plan had hinged upon the idea that I would never see him again. Now that he was here in front of me, I couldn’t help but wonder if I had made a huge mistake in never telling him.
As much as I hated to admit it, it wasn’t wholly guilt that made me wish I had told him. It was also the fact that he was so damn attractive. Hell, he was hotter now than he had been when we were in college. How was that possible? Maybe it was something to do with the easy confidence he carried himself with, with the obvious power he wielded at the c
ompany. Or maybe it was more to do with the fact that his clothes were clearly tailored to fit him and his hair shorter than it had been, his messy kind-of-but-not-quite beach-boy look long gone.
Whatever it was, I immediately wanted him, and I couldn’t help wondering what might have been if I had been up front with him about Ronny when I first found out I was pregnant. Would we have put together some sort of a relationship that transcended the realm of one-night stand? Where would we be now?
Except I knew only too well what would have happened. We had both been so young back then. We would have spent the first years at one another’s throats about everything, sure that we both knew best when it came to how to raise our daughter. We would have driven one another crazy, and we would have ended up even further apart than we were now.
Or maybe not. With this secret between us, it was hard to believe we could be even further apart.
There was nothing I could do to change things now, anyway. I knew I couldn’t get myself fired from this job after I had not only uprooted Ronny from New York but also put a down payment on a townhome. That meant I couldn’t do anything to ruin things with my new boss. And that meant this secret had to stay a secret.
I tried not to feel too unsettled as Wes led me around the office. I knew that no one knew anything about me and that they had never met Ronny, but part of me kept expecting one of them to somehow out me to Wes as he introduced me. Of course, that didn’t happen, but it was a relief to have Wes lead me into the privacy of my own office.
The view from here was a lot different from what I was used to, cornfields instead of high-rises, but I had to admit, it was comfortable and stylish. Better than I might have expected.
“I’ll give you some time to settle in,” Wes said, and from his tone of voice, it sounded like he was just as uncomfortable as I was with this whole situation but trying his best to remain professional. Good. I would do the same. “There’s an all-staff meeting in a couple hours that I’d like you to attend, though.”
“Sure thing,” I said, heading over to the chair and flopping down in it, giving it a little spin. When I looked back up at Wes, he was staring at me. He seemed to give himself a little shake, then hastily backed toward the door.
I sighed heavily as the door closed behind him. I rubbed my fingers against my temples, already feeling a headache coming on. What could I do, though? Find another job? I probably should; even if Wes and I were trying to keep things strictly professional, I had a feeling that working for him was bound to end badly. But I knew there was nowhere else in town where I could find myself a similar position.
If I hadn’t already put the payment down on the townhome, I might have seriously considered just going elsewhere. But as it was, and with Ronny in tow, leaving town wasn’t an option. Doing something in another line of work had never been an option for me either. That meant that somehow, I had to make this work. For all our sakes.
I couldn’t help thinking back to college, though. We’d gotten on one another’s nerves all the time, it seemed like. We had gone up against one another for pretty much every opportunity that the business school had to offer, from internships to scholarships and more. Somehow, that had all culminated in that one night together, a night which I could never forget.
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About the Author
Annie J. Rose is a contemporary romance author who loves to bring all your fantasies to life. She writes steamy romance with a happily ever after.
Born and raised in New Zealand, she often spends most of her time writing stories by her balcony. Pharmacist by day, smut-writer at night.
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