Chapter Two
Tuesday at mid-afternoon, Mrs. Argenot walked out of Robert's office with her arms full. "I'm going to the courthouse, Renee. I've got to get this application for permit filed, and pick up a copy of the plat map for La Fourche parish. After that, I'll be at the appraisal district. You're going to have to hold down the fort for the rest of the day."
"No problem. There's not much on this afternoon's itinerary except for a three o'clock with Cameron Industrial Supplies. Everything else is business as usual. Be careful out there."
Renee really liked the older woman. She was business first with a soft outer maternal coating. She was a pleasure to work with on a day to day basis.
Mrs. Argenot paused on her way out the door with a calculating look. "Oh, that James Cameron! You haven't met him yet, have you? We've already built two warehouses for him. This consultation is only customary. We'll get the bid." She lowered her voice. "He's a nice man, Renee. He's single, dear. Pays his bills in thirty days. And so nice looking. You'll have to tell me what you think tomorrow."
The older woman gave her a conspiratorial smile and breezed out of the office.
****
At three o'clock, Renee glanced up from the paperwork in front of her to the man that walked in from outside. She immediately saw what Mrs. Argenot meant. The man was tall and broad and very nice looking, if a bit young. He had brown hair with streaks of gold running through it. Renee immediately pushed the comparison to dark, steely strength from her mind and focused on her job.
"You must be Mr. Cameron." Renee gave him her friendliest smile.
"And you must be the new secretary Mrs. Argenot has been raving on and on about." He walked across the room and extended his hand toward her.
Renee heard a subtle click in the background as she stood and gave him her hand. "Yes. I'm Renee Guillot." Renee held her smile as the man continued to hold onto her hand.
"Call me James, please. We're going to be seeing a lot of each other. Now that I've seen you, I don't think I'm going to waste my time with getting other bids." Renee felt his grip tighten and subtly caress her hand. If her brain hadn't been completely absorbed with Robert Thibodeaux, she knew she would have found the touch very pleasant.
James broke eye contact with her at a sound from across the room.
Robert stood scowling in the doorway of his office. Renee felt the provocative effect he had on her every time she was in his presence.
He took his time watching them. Tension gripped Renee. Finally he spoke.
"Cameron. Good to see you. If you can let go of my secretary long enough, maybe we can do some business."
James slowly let go of her hand and followed Robert into his office.
****
Almost two hours later, Renee was clearing her desk for the day when the two men came out of the meeting. They shook hands and James Cameron looked her way, nodded, and left the building.
Robert stood with his arms crossed, glaring at her. Her heartbeat accelerated as he came prowling toward her. He crossed behind her desk to where she sat and lowered his hands to the arms of her chair and caged her in.
Her breathing went haywire. Her eyes were riveted on him.
"Don't flirt with my clients again." His words were sharp, punctuated.
Renee sucked in a breath and began shaking her head in denial. Forty-seven more days. "I didn't--"
"Bullshit. I saw you. I don't need your help getting the business. You just do your work and keep those sweet little smiles to yourself." His arms tightened on the chair until his hands turned white. Anger radiated from him. He was too pissed for her to try to reason with.
She nodded her head in agreement.
****
Robert stood under the stream of icy cold water and tried to contain the primal emotions running through him. It had come too damn close today. That mother fucker Cameron looking at her like he was measuring her for his bed. The smile she had given him in return. And the possession and lust that coursed through his body when she sat so still in his arms.
He was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. He needed a woman in his bed. Needed one tonight.
But only one would do. And he couldn't have her yet.
The waiting was going to make him snap and do something stupid.
With a steady stream of cuss words, he flipped the water to hot and reached his soapy hand down and did what he had to do so he would have enough control to face her the next day.
Chapter Three
The rest of the week crawled by in slow motion for Renee. Friday morning, she found herself questioning more and more why she continued to live on this tightrope. This job had good pay and benefits, but it didn't stand between her and starvation. Especially after the conversation she had with her daughter the night before.
She was curled up watching an old movie trying to take her mind off the menacing image of Robert Thibodeaux when her cell phone rang. Her daughter's picture blinked, and her own special ringtone filled the air. "Hey, baby. How are you?"
"Mom. Guess what?" Brittany barely paused before continuing in an upbeat voice. "I got an R.A. position!" Her young voice was enthusiastic.
Renee didn't know what that meant, but could tell it must be good. "Great, baby. What's an R.A.?"
Brittany answered in a rush of sentences. "It's a resident advisor. I'm really young to get it only going into my second year. But I must have been impressive because I didn't even have to come back for a second interview. Mrs. Cobb, the lady in charge of resident life, looked at my application and resume and hired me on the spot."
"Hired you for what? What is resident life?" Renee was happy for her daughter, but didn't want her burdened with a job. She needed to keep her grades up, so the scholarship money would keep coming in.
"It means I'll continue to live in the freshmen dorms next year, and be kind of like a big sister. Kids will come to me with problems, or just questions and I help them out. Of course, I'm supposed to report any alcohol or drug use or stuff like that, but I don't think that's going to be much of an issue because I haven't run into anything like that this year. Well, not in the freshmen dorms, anyway."
"And they'll pay you for this?" Renee questioned.
"Well, not really. I just get my room for free. All you have to do is buy me a meal plan next year. And hopefully every year after that."
Renee felt a huge knot of stress dissolve and relief take its place. "Are you serious? We don't have to come up with the dorm money? And you don't actually have to work any extra? You just have to live there and answer questions?"
"Yeah, Mom. That's basically it. I didn't want to tell you before I applied for it because I didn't want you to get your hopes up. But now we can celebrate. Yay!"
Renee thought back over the conversation of the night before and was still amazed at the sense of relief she felt. The financial burden of college was almost non-existent now. She was very lucky to have a smart, responsible daughter. And now she was free to quit her job and leave this hysteria-inducing environment. So why should she stay? It dawned on her all at once the actual choice she had now.
She could quit this job or… Or she could quit dancing around him and let him catch her. Sudden images provoked her curiosity. He was absolutely the sexiest man she had ever met in her life. He had been an object of fascination for her since the first time she laid eyes on him.
There was no question he wanted her. She wasn't stupid. She knew the signs. He was like a bull with a red flag waving in front of his face. How much would it take to push him over the edge? Could she be so subtle that he never knew what hit him?
She bit her lip and wondered if she should even try.
****
Later that afternoon she got her chance when he came prowling out of his office, looking for the file she was working on. She started out the enticement well enough, but chickened out halfway through.
Handing the file to him, she pushed her chair away from her desk just enough to draw his eyes
down to her legs where she slowly crossed them. With a subtle movement, she reached down to her thigh with a hand that trembled and smoothed away an imaginary wrinkle. As his eyes followed her, she lowered her hand to her ankle and slid it back up toward her thigh again, this time going underneath her skirt and dragging it a bare inch above her knee before making a small production of trying to cover her legs.
She lifted her face back to his and froze. His eyes were riveted on her, his nostrils flaring and slashes of red marking his cheekbones.
Robert felt the kick to the guts exactly where she aimed it. The impact of her movements hit him. Her eyes held his for two seconds and then dropped away.
But not fast enough.
The game had just changed.
Lust slammed through him. He reached out and took the pen she held from her fingers. He saw the small gasp she tried to hide. "You think you can possibly win against me, baby?"
Renee felt a quiver of fear slide through her veins. She hadn't expected him to call her out. She wasn't ready for this yet. She gritted her teeth and tried to bluff. "I don't know what you mean."
"Don't you? You're a hot little package, but don't for one minute think you can take me on." He reached out and grabbed her chin between his fingers and lifted her face. "Trust me. You couldn't handle the results."
He turned and slammed back into his office.
Chapter Four
Saturday night, Robert sat in the bar at the Ninth Street Wine Grotto and nursed his second beer. He refused to question himself on his choice of location. Running into her here two weeks ago had been a coincidence. It wouldn't be repeated. Frustration gripped him. This wait was intolerable. He had to push her into quitting. He needed her naked. Under him. Over him. Down on him.
The picture of her face when his bitch of an ex-wife had called was emblazoned on his brain. Her eyes when she realized he wasn't married. The fear. The relief. The confusion.
She wasn't immune to him. Far from it.
What had pushed her into the sexy little charade of seduction she had tried on him yesterday? What was in that gorgeous head of hers? Something had changed with her. He was going to find out what it was.
He knew she wanted him. Maybe not as much as he wanted her, but she was curious about him. Curious about how it would be with him. He could smell it on her. The curiosity. It was that curiosity that would give him the opening he needed. He just had to make it happen. It was a sad fact that she couldn't keep her job. He knew he was a ruthless bastard, but he would get his way. And soon, he would set the pieces into motion.
****
Monday afternoon, Renee was in the archive room looking through dusty blueprints when she heard the door slam.
Her body jolted and twin feelings of panic and excitement slid down her spine when she saw him leaning against the closed door. "What are you doing in here?" His voice lacerated her.
"Mrs. Argenot needs the prints from the Belle Chase project." Her nerves were stretched but luckily her voice didn't shake.
He stood, arms crossed, staring at her. Dear God, he was handsome. Renee cataloged his features one by one. He had dark hair with snippets of gray running through it. Gorgeous brown eyes with slashing brows. His lips were full and his skin was a dark, swarthy color. His nose was too large and slightly off-center, where it looked like it had been broken at one time. It turned what would have been true beauty into a masculine, blatantly male countenance.
Her heart started beating faster.
"I want you to quit. This isn't working out." It was an order.
Shock slid through her and caught her off guard. She played for time. "Why?" Her voice was soft.
"Why? Are you kidding?" He pushed off the door and took a predatory step toward her.
Renee dropped the papers in her hands and backed up a step. She held out one slim hand to ward him off.
It was enough to stall him a moment.
"So you'll hand in your resignation?"
Disappointment and an arrow of pain slid through her. "Are you firing me?"
"No. I want you to quit." The lines of his mouth flattened.
"I don't want to quit." More than anything she was beginning to need to know where this would lead.
"Goddammnit, Renee. Quit being so bull headed. You know this is going to end bad for you." His voice became biting.
She lifted her chin and hit back, challenging him. "Maybe it's going to end bad for you. Maybe you're scared of me."
He laughed. "Kudos for trying, baby. It ain't going to happen. This is going to end one place and one place only."
She shook her head back and forth. Her hair moved in a shimmering display around her shoulders. "I'm not going to quit. Are you going to fire me?"
"No. You're going to quit." His words were adamant, irrefutable.
She continued to shake her head.
His eyes narrowed on her. "Maybe you'd like a sample? A demonstration of what you can expect if you don't give up?" He started coming toward her again.
Renee watched him as if in a trance. She backed up until she hit the wall. He followed. Her eyes were huge when he stopped in front of her. He reached out and took a lock of her hair and wrapped it around his fist. Her heart pounded in her chest and her breathing became palpable.
"You've put up a good fight. You're a worthy opponent. But guess what, baby? Check and mate."
His mouth covered hers.
A heated jolt hit her system. Even though she had expected it, she was still shocked by the intensity. He plastered himself against her and all she could do was hang against the wall as his tongue delved deep at the same time he pushed his lower torso into her. He was blatant in his domination, as his tongue pushed in and pulled out, mimicking the motions of sex. His fist tightened in her hair, his body inundating hers completely.
She felt dazed and disoriented as she hung in his grasp while he took from her mouth, his hands gripping her, molding her to him. His hands moved to her neck, wrapped around and briefly held her, then slid to her waist and gripped her in an uncompromising clasp.
All at once the shock left her and intense excitement screamed through her veins. This was it. This was really it. He was kissing her. Finally. God, finally. She reached up and wrapped her hands around his shoulders, moving up to thread her fingers through his hair. He smelled so good. Sexual heat emanated from him. She grasped him more tightly.
Was her job really worth it? No, it wasn't. She didn't want to give this up. She needed to know how it would be between them.
He lifted his head and looked deep into her eyes. "Say it. Say I quit, Robert," he demanded, his voice like gravel.
She shook her head slightly in a negative motion while her fingers caressed his skull. He slid his hands from the indentation of her waist up to her face. He grasped her cheekbones with his strong hands. "I can't sleep with you while you work for me." His words were low and deep, the demand in them absolute.
Renee sucked in a breath and watched him in silence. Okay. It was out in the open.
He continued, "If we had met anywhere else, it would already be a done deal. You know it. I know it." His words softened. "You're fighting against the inevitable." His fingers encapsulated her wrists and braced them against the wall as his lips moved to her cheek and trailed to her ear.
A jolt of lightning shot through her system when she felt him breathe in the scent of her hair. He transferred both of her wrists to one strong hand and moved the other down and wrapped it around her neck.
Renee's mind splintered. Oh, God, this was a seduction she couldn't fight against. She felt like putty in his hands. She had been in serious lust and halfway infatuated since the moment she met him.
Robert felt her heartbeat accelerate. Her body trembled against his. He watched her eyes flare as he pressed against her neck while he restrained her in a more dominating grasp. He measured his strength against her softness. Jesus Christ, she was fine. He needed to get it in her, and soon. He was becoming obsessed with her, goddam
nit!
The acknowledgment hit him hard. He loosened his grip and trailed his hands back down to her waist. He squeezed possessively and said, "Think about it."
He walked out the door and Renee leaned against the wall and tried desperately to get her fractured mind to function again.
****
"Jenny, he's not married." Renee kicked back on her bed, cell phone to her ear, and lifted her legs all the way into the air and examined the new polish on her toes. She felt amazingly good considering all the angst at work.
She twisted her foot one way, then the other, inspecting the new color while she waited for the reaction from her friend she knew was coming.
Bedded by the Boss Page 2
