“I guess you heard about Fredericks.”
She nodded.
“And I’m sure the rumors are flying.”
“They are.”
“I’m more than willing to talk to you about it. But that’s not why I called you up here.”
Tension just seemed to ratchet up in her shoulders, pulling them so tight that she was practically folding inside of herself. She looked up, and I swear I saw tears in her eyes.
“Are you going to fire me?”
And it all suddenly made so much sense.
“Of course not.”
Her eyes widened slightly. “I just thought—”
“I called you up here because I wanted to ask if you had plans for the evening. I’d like to make you dinner.”
Relief—and a little surprise—flooded her eyes. She stepped back slightly, but I don’t think it was in an attempt to get away from me. I think it was because I’d thrown her off balance.
What had this girl gone through that she automatically jumped to the worst-case scenario?
“I like you. I just wanted to see you again,” I said, moving closer to her, taking her face between my hands. I wished her hair wasn’t in a braid, I so wanted to run my fingers through it. Instead, I contented myself lifting her chin so that I could claim her lips as my own.
She moved into me, her hand sliding slowly over the front of my chest. I remembered how her fingers tips played with the script of my tattoo, and I was almost overwhelmed with a need to feel her skin against mine. But we were in my office and now wasn’t the time.
I really wished it was.
I ran my hand down the length of her back, sliding it over her ass. It was just as firm and perfect as I had imagined it would be. Better when it was uncovered, but perfect just the same. And the way she kissed, like she wasn’t even slightly aware of just how sexy she really was. There was a certain degree of hesitation to her kiss, an uncertainty that only made it that much more erotic.
Was it possible to want someone so much that all thought of decorum and self-respect can go flying out the window?
I had to touch her. It was as simple as that.
I pulled her across the room, watching emotion play over her face as we walked to the couch. Then I sat and tugged her down onto my lap. She didn’t hesitate then; she just curled up against my chest and watched as my hand slipped under the bottom hem of her skirt.
Then we were kissing again, making out like a couple of teenagers on their parents’ couch. She moved her hips and…hell, did she do that on purpose? I wanted to bend her over my desk, stare at that perfect ass for a few minutes before I fucked her until she was screaming like she’d done in my bed last night. Instead, I contented myself with a caress on her inner thigh and a sigh that slipped from her lips and danced across my tongue.
“Come to my house tonight,” I said.
Her eyes were bright with need. But she shook her head, the simple movement threatening to break my heart.
“I have to work.”
“Here?”
“No. I have a night job at a bar downtown.”
I groaned with disappointment even as an image of her in a cocktail waitress’s uniform made my balls ache.
“Why?”
She tilted her head slightly. “I have debts.”
I slid my hand further up her skirt, and she pressed her hand to it through the material, arresting its movement. But there was a flirtatious light dancing in her eyes.
“I know nothing about you.”
“You know a few things.”
I forced my hand further up her skirt, grabbed a nice handful of that ass.
“I want to know more,” I said, drawing her bottom lip between my teeth. I sucked on it, loving the way it felt in my mouth. And then I kissed her again, a deep kiss that I felt all the way to my toes. And then my fingertips slid under the elastic on the bottom edge of her panties. She moaned softly, as I brushed against her moist lips.
I wanted her…fuck, I wanted her.
“I should go,” she moaned against my lips.
“Not yet.”
She smiled, but she leaned into my kiss again. And she shifted, giving me a little more access to the prize I so wanted to earn.
“You drive me crazy,” I said, as she slid her lips over my chin and began to nibble at the little bit of my neck that was vulnerable above my collar. It was my turn to shift, moving my hand so that I was cupping her cunt in my palm, my fingers caressing the full lips that wanted to open to my touch. She groaned, moving her hips against my hand, encouraging me, as her fingers slid under a gap in the front of my shirt. I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t control the need that was burning deep inside of me.
But then Shelly had to bring me back to reality with a crash.
“Jason, we—”
She stopped, and when I looked up, her face was a shade of red I don’t think I’d ever seen before. She immediately turned and walked back out.
Ten years she’d worked with me, and that was the first time I’d ever caused her reason to be embarrassed.
“I should go,” Joey repeated, untangling herself from my touch and climbing to her feet, tugging her skirt back into the right position.
“Joanne,” I said, standing to follow. But she was out the door before I could catch her, storming through the reception area—past my secretary and Shelly—her eyes on the ground.
Damn, damn, damn!
What was I doing?
Chapter 9
Joey
“Three beers,” I called out, as I stood at the bar, leaning against the worn wood and lifting my foot so that I could relieve a little of the pressure that was causing my instep to ache.
“How’s it going, Jo?” a guy next to me, a regular who always seemed to be sitting in the same spot every night, asked.
“Not too bad, Howie. How are you?”
“Well on my way to a good whiskey fog.”
I patted him on the shoulder before I lifted my newly refilled tray and headed back out onto the floor. It was Thursday night so we were crowded. The Thursday night football game was on, so there was a lot of cheering going on at weird intervals, along with the groans when one team or another failed to meet expectations. I had to watch my step carefully, dodging flailing arms and legs that were sticking out where they didn’t need to be, and the drunks who thought it was okay for them to grab at anything they could reach.
It’d been a long day, and I was so ready to go home. Not that my day would be done then. Rosie hit me with two new orders the moment I walked through the door, both of which would require sheet cakes to be ready for decorating in the morning. So I was going to be up half the night baking.
And all I could think about was Jason.
I had really thought he would fire me the moment I walked into his office. But then he starts in with the invitation for dinner and the kiss and…I knew it was dangerous. Sleeping with the boss? How many women have discovered what a mess that could become? But when he looked at me the way he did, I melted like butter in the microwave.
Mrs. Constantine called me to her office when I went back downstairs. She wanted to know what Mr. Brooks had wanted with me. I didn’t know what to tell her. I couldn’t exactly admit that we’d made out on the couch, but she wouldn’t stop with the questions.
Did I know why Mr. Fredericks was fired? Did I report something upstairs that should have gone through her first? Was I involved in the questionable billings that had been passed back down to our department? Did I have some idea of what Mr. Brooks planned to do about replacing Mr. Fredericks?
I think it was that last part that really had Mrs. Constantine riled up. I think she was hoping that she was in the running for head of the department.
Mrs. Constantine wasn’t the only one curious about the number of times I’d been called upstairs. Lesley wouldn’t stop whispering questions over the top of the divider between our cubicles. And the others stared at me every time I left my cubicle or as they walked past it on thei
r way to wherever they felt the need to go twice as often today than any other day.
I don’t know what they thought I knew. The truth was, I knew just about as much as they did. It wasn’t like Jason and I talked last night or this afternoon.
Not much, anyway.
I hoped all this blew over fairly quick. Things like this usually did. But there were other rumors. Some were saying that Mr. Brooks was planning to replace the heads of all the departments. Others were saying that he was getting ready to sell the company and that’s why he was making all the changes. And still there were other rumors, most farfetched, but people believed them anyway.
Someone suggested that the Brooks family was planning to take over the company because Jason wasn’t running it well enough. That was a rumor that had circulated since I started working there. I didn’t think there was any truth to it. But anything was possible.
I delivered my beers and headed back to the bar. I was surprised to see Rahul standing there, watching me.
“Hey,” he said, his eyes moving slowly over me as though he was looking for injuries of some sort. I set my tray down and rolled my ankles again, wishing I didn’t have to wear these boots to work. But it could be worse. Instead of jeans and a super tight tee, I could be dressed in heels and a short skirt like the waitresses at a neighboring bar had to wear.
“What are you doing here?”
“Rosie said you got home safe, but I wanted to see for myself.”
“I’m sorry about last night. I should have texted.”
“She said you fell asleep.”
I nodded, as I bit my bottom lip, my cheeks once again burning with a blush. “It was a real disaster.”
“The guy ever get home?”
“Yeah. Imagine his surprise when he walked into his house and found a huge cake sitting there and a snoring girl curled up inside.”
“I doubt you snore.”
But he was smiling, clearly amused by the image.
“Yeah, go ahead and laugh. Rosie had quite the laugh this morning.”
“Sorry.” He tried to wipe the smile away, but it wasn’t going anywhere. “How did you get home?”
“I walked to the front gate and called a taxi.”
“Next time, I’ll stick around. I don’t care about the circumstances.”
“That’s the last time I fill in for Rosie. I think three jobs is plenty for this girl.”
“Speaking of which”—he pulled an envelope from his back pocket—“this is your cut from last night.”
“Thanks.” I slid it into my pocket as one of my tables began screaming for attention. “Gotta go,” I said gesturing in the general direction.
“Hey.” Rahul grabbed my arm and pulled me against his chest, dropping a kiss on my cheek. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
I smiled as I extricated myself from his grip. And then I turned and caught sight of Jason Brooks watching from a table at the back of the room.
Chapter 10
Jason
I didn’t know what I was doing there. When the guy suggested a downtown bar for our meeting, I’d told him I preferred somewhere a little less crowded. An expensive restaurant, maybe. But he insisted. Said the hot wings were worth the lack of ambiance.
I hadn’t been to a honkytonk type of bar since I was in college. And then it had been California’s version of a honkytonk. I almost laughed as I walked through the door, feeling as though I’d just stepped onto the set of some bad eighties western. But he was right about the hot wings.
I hadn’t expected the headhunters to find a viable candidate to replace Frank so quickly, but this guy had all the right recommendations, the right schooling, and a pretty impressive work history. I would have been a fool to pass him over, but he was only in town for one night.
It was now or never.
Normally, I would let the head of human resources handle the initial interview. But this was too important. And I wasn’t completely satisfied that the remaining department heads were trustworthy. So I wanted to do this myself.
“I would think this job would be very similar to what you did at Westin and Wales,” I said, as a jean clad waitress set a couple of beers and more hot wings on our table.
The guy, Silas Peters, was busy staring at the waitress, as she smiled down at him. He didn’t answer me until she’d left, and he was done watching her walk away.
“I’d oversee the entire department?”
“You would.”
“How much discretion would I have?”
I shrugged. “I suppose it depends on what you mean by discretion.”
“Would I be able to implement my own policies? Run the department the way I want to run it?”
“Your only oversight would be me and my assistant, Shelly.”
“And you would let me do things my way?”
“I would give you as much rope as you need. But you’ll have to understand that we were recently burned by your predecessor. So I’m not entirely comfortable with giving you complete free rein.”
“Would I have to pass things by you before I presented them to the department members?”
I picked up my beer, taking a sip to give myself a moment to think that over. On the one hand, I didn’t want to be a mother hen, constantly correcting him over little details. I wasn’t that kind of administrator. However, I also didn’t want to allow him to do as he pleased and end up right back where I started. I needed some sort of medium, but I wasn’t sure how to achieve that.
“Not everything,” I finally said. “But I want to be kept informed.”
The guy sat back, chomping on a hot wing, his fingers sticky with the spicy sauce.
“Let me tell you what I think,” he said, drawing his words out with slow deliberation. “You have a department that was allowed to run wild for far too long, and now you want to corral them. But you don’t want to open yourself up to more trouble.”
I nodded. “That’s exactly it.”
“Then you’re talking to the wrong fella. What you need is someone who’s willing to let you dictate his every move. What you’d get with me is someone who knows how to get a job done, but only if given free range.”
I was disappointed, but I had to agree. The more he talked, the more I realized that what I wanted and what I’d described to the headhunters were two different things.
Time to go back to the drawing board.
I picked up my beer again and tried to pretend this guy wasn’t annoying with the sticky hot wings. Was I really that spoiled by my privileged upbringing that I couldn’t feel comfortable in this sort of environment? I’d never thought of myself that way, but…
And then I saw her, smiling wearily at a customer as she made her way through the crowded tables. I wasn’t sure it was her at first, but that gorgeous head of hair, still tied back in the braid she’d been wearing at the office, was unmistakable. But then my heart sank. Again.
There was some guy waiting for her at the bar. He was tall, dark skinned. About her age. And the smile on his face as he watched her walk toward him suggested a relationship that went much deeper than just a customer-waitress sort of thing.
They talked for a minute and he handed her something. I thought—hoped—it was a tip or something. But as she tried to walk away, he pulled her into his arms and kissed her.
I remembered the call from security this morning, the guy who had tried quite valiantly to get through the gate to rescue her last night. Was this that guy? Was he her boyfriend? But why did she spend the night with me? Why did she come quite willingly into my arms this afternoon?
And then a thought that hadn’t even crossed my mind until this second sank in.
I was her boss. What other choice did she have? Obviously, she needed her job at my company. Maybe she thought that if she turned me down, she’d get fired. Wasn’t that what she had expected today? Isn’t that basically what she’d said to me?
Fuck me!
“It was nice meeting you,” I muttered to Mr. Peters
, as I stood and strutted toward the doors.
I had to walk past her to get out. She grabbed my sleeve as I passed her, but I kept going, pretending she wasn’t even there. It wasn’t really her fault. It was mine. I was stupid not to see it sooner. The one time I found a girl I’d really like to get to know, and I’ve somehow pressured her into something she doesn’t want. What a fool I was!
The cool evening air hit me in the face like a bucket of ice water poured over my head. I brushed past a couple trying to get inside and headed to the parking lot at the back of the building. I heard someone calling from behind me, but I just kept going.
“Jason, please wait!”
I had my car door open when she grabbed my arm. She had a better hold on it this time, actually yanking it away from the door.
“Please…”
“Is that your boyfriend?”
“What? No!”
“You don’t have to lie to me, Joanne. It’s not your fault.”
“He’s not. He’s just a friend.”
“That didn’t look friendly.”
She blushed, her eyes moving away from mine. “I think he might have a crush on me. But it’s one sided.”
“Yeah?”
I let my eyes fall slowly over her face, the blush that seemed to be a constant thing with her. I wanted to touch her. It was an urge that never seemed to leave me whenever she was near. I actually clasped my hands behind my back to keep from doing it, to keep from caressing that perfect, pink cheek.
“Last night when you…” I hesitated, not sure I wanted to give voice to what was on my mind. Her head came up, her eyes wide and sincere as they fell on mine. “You didn’t do that because you felt like you had to, did you?”
Surprise registered all through her expression, making those full lips part slightly, her eyes widened even more and then narrowed just the tinniest bit.
“Why would you think that?”
“I’m your boss and—”
“I don’t know what you think about me, but I would never prostitute myself for a job not matter how badly I need it.” She turned on her heel, marching back toward the front of the bar. “I’m not that desperate.”
KILLIAN: A Mafia Romance (The Callahans Book 2) Page 58
