by Anna Stone
“Come in, Emma,” Lillian said, her eyes never leaving Thomas’s.
Emma opened the door. “Ms. White—” Emma noticed Thomas in the chair and stopped in her tracks. “Sorry, I can come back.”
“Stay. Thomas was just leaving,”
“This isn’t over, Lillian.” Thomas got up from his chair and walked toward the door. He stopped in front of Emma and gave her the up-and-down glance that he gave every good-looking woman he crossed paths with. He opened his mouth to speak to her.
Lillian cut him off. “Leave. Now.”
Thomas bristled. He shot Lillian a scathing glare. Then, just to spite her, he gave Emma one last look, and left the office.
“I’m sorry,” Emma said. “I didn’t know you had someone in here.”
“It’s fine,” Lillian said.
“Is everything okay? Things seemed pretty tense in here.”
“It’s nothing. That poor excuse for a lawyer is the bane of my existence, that’s all,” Lillian said. “I’m sorry if he made you uncomfortable.”
“It’s okay.” Emma said.
“No, it’s not. He was looking at you like you were a piece of meat.” It bothered Lillian much more than it should have.
A faint blush rose up Emma’s cheeks. “I appreciate the concern, but it’s fine.” She placed a folder on Lillian’s desk. “I tracked down those files for you.”
“Good,” Lillian said. “I emailed you some documents. I need you to proofread them and send them back to me.”
“Right away, Ms. White,” Emma said with a smile.
Lillian watched her leave. Chelsea may have had a point. There was something about Emma that Lillian found enticing. Was it her sweet disposition? That teasing smile of hers? The way she would say “Ms. White,” as if every letter was dipped in honey?
And Lillian’s question about why Emma liked working for her hadn’t been entirely innocent. It was impulsive, a moment of weakness, and completely unlike Lillian. But she’d wanted to see how Emma would react.
And react she had.
But it didn’t matter. Lillian was not going to slip up again.
6
Emma
Emma dumped her things on her desk and turned on her computer. She’d been working at AG&W for weeks now, and time had only confirmed what she’d realized at the end of her first week.
She was head over heels for Lillian White.
She had no idea why she was so drawn to Lillian, considering everything about her seemed to scream “keep away.” But there had to be something behind those icy blue eyes. Emma knew it. And she was determined to slip under Lillian’s guard.
Emma wondered if she should be more surprised by the fact that she was attracted to women. Well, she was attracted to one woman at least. Wasn’t she supposed to have some kind of big, dramatic awakening? Wasn’t she supposed to feel conflicted? The only person she’d ever been with was her ex-fiancé, who was a man. Was she a lesbian, or bisexual, or something else?
She didn’t know. And right now, she didn’t care. All she knew was that whenever she thought about Lillian, it made her pulse race and her skin flush. She wanted so badly to embrace those feelings and find out where they would lead.
If only Lillian weren’t her boss.
Emma sighed. She knew she should put all thoughts of pursuing Lillian out of her head. But sometimes she wondered if her infatuation wasn’t entirely one-sided. Now and then, she would glance at Lillian and find Lillian looking back at her, a heat in her eyes that set Emma’s skin alight.
Emma sighed, then realized she had sighed three times in the past minute. Collecting herself, she made her way to Lillian’s office.
“Good morning, Ms. White,” Emma said.
“Emma.” Lillian glanced at her from over the top of her laptop.
“Here’s your coffee.” Emma placed the cup on the desk in front of Lillian. It had become part of their morning routine.
“Thank you,” Lillian said. She shut her laptop. “How do you feel about working some overtime today, Emma?”
“More overtime than usual, you mean?” The words tumbled out of Emma’s mouth before she could stop them.
“I didn’t realize you had a problem with me keeping you here after hours.”
Emma smiled. “I don’t mind at all, Ms. White.”
Lillian crossed her arms, her lips pressed into a line. “Something has changed about you. I’m not sure if I like it.”
Blood rose to Emma’s cheeks. Lillian’s tone was firm and scolding, but there was a flicker of heat in her eyes once again. Emma still didn’t quite understand what it was.
“Is that a yes to overtime?” Lillian asked.
Emma nodded. “Yes.”
“It’s the Exco case,” Lillian said. “The client has decided to go ahead with arbitration proceedings, which gives us less time to put together a case than I would have liked.”
As Lillian continued, Emma’s mind began to wander. Late nights alone in the office with Lillian. That could prove difficult. But she was a grown woman. Surely she could behave herself.
“Do you think you can handle it?”
“Yes.” Emma hadn’t even heard half of what Lillian had said.
“Good. Finish up what you were working on yesterday, then come see me and we can get started.”
“Right away, Ms. White.”
“Emma?” Lillian said.
“Yes?”
“Call me Lillian.”
Around 8 p.m. that night, Emma returned to the office carrying a bag of takeout. She knocked on Lillian’s door.
“Come in,” Lillian said.
Lillian sat behind her desk, scribbling away furiously, glancing over at her laptop screen now and then. The desk was an orderly mess of files and papers. Lillian didn’t look up at Emma at all. At some point while Emma was gone, Lillian had freed her long blonde hair from its bun. It fell down over her shoulders like gold-colored silk, framing her face and softening the angles of her cheekbones and chin.
As if on cue, Lillian combed her fingers over her scalp from front to back, drawing them through her hair. “What is it, Emma?”
Emma hadn’t realized she was standing there staring. “I brought you dinner,” she said. “It’s from the Thai place across the street. I figured you’d be hungry since you didn’t eat lunch.” Emma had quickly learned that Lillian was the type to forget about normal human functions like eating and sleeping when she was working.
“I didn’t know you had time to keep tabs on me.” Lillian’s eyes remained fixed on the screen. “I should be giving you more work to do.”
“Here.” Emma placed the bag down on Lillian’s desk. “You really shouldn’t skip meals so often,” she said under her breath.
“Are you forgetting which of us is in charge here?”
“Sorry,” Emma said.
Lillian sighed. “No, I suppose you’re right. I’ll eat something once I’ve sent off this email.”
“Can I stay and eat with you, then?”
Lillian finally looked up at Emma. “Why not? Go sit down by the coffee table and I’ll join you in a minute.”
Emma walked over to the coffee table and set the food down, opening the boxes one by one. A spicy aroma filled the air. After a few minutes, Lillian shut her laptop, walked over to the coffee table, and sat down across from Emma. Once Emma started to eat, she realized how hungry she was.
After a few mouthfuls, Lillian set her fork down. “I hope all this overtime isn’t keeping you from anything.”
“Nope,” Emma said. “I just moved here. I don’t really know anyone or have anything to do other than work.”
“No one is waiting up for you at home?”
“No. I live by myself. And I’m completely unattached,” Emma added.
“Really? I’d be careful if I were you. If you tell anyone in the office that you’re single, you’ll have half the men in the building offering to buy you lunch. These high-powered types can’t resist a pretty you
ng woman.”
“Only the men?” Emma asked, feeling bold.
Lillian sat back and crossed her legs. “And some of the women.”
Emma was suddenly aware that the offices outside the door were almost empty. Completely unbidden, an image of Lillian crossing the table and pinning Emma down on the couch filled her mind.
“So, why did you move to Chicago?” Lillian asked.
Emma hesitated. Lillian had never asked her about her personal life before. “I wanted a fresh start,” she said. “Well, more like a chance to actually start living. When my dad died ten years ago, I put my life on hold to look after my family. The twins were still toddlers, and Margo, who’s the oldest after me, was only six. I stepped in to help raise them. But now that they’re older, they don’t need me anymore, so I decided it was time for me to try to find my own path.” Emma picked at the noodles in front of her. “And there was the fact that my ex-fiancé lived next door. Our families are really close, so when everything ended with him it was hard to avoid seeing each other all the time.”
“What happened between the two of you?” Lillian asked.
“It’s complicated,” Emma replied. “We’d been friends for as long as I could remember. We grew up together. When we got to high school, he kept asking me out, over and over, until I finally said yes. I mean, I did like him. And everyone always assumed that we’d end up together, including both our families, so I just went along with it. A couple of years ago, we got engaged. But I kept pushing the wedding back further and further until I called it all off entirely and finally admitted the truth.”
“And that was?” Lillian asked
“That I didn’t love him,” Emma said. “At least, not in that way. It always felt like there was something missing. But I didn’t realize it because I was so used to going through life trying to make everyone else happy that I never stopped to think about what I wanted. That’s why I moved away. I wanted time and space to find myself and figure out what I want.”
“And? Have you figured out what you want yet?”
“I have a few ideas,” Emma replied.
“I hope you find what you’re looking for,” Lillian said.
The conversation turned to work as they finished off the last of the takeout.
Lillian stood up and gestured toward the empty takeout boxes. “I’ll deal with all this later. Go finish what you were working on.” She walked over to her desk.
“Yes, Ms. White.” Emma got up from the couch. Just as she reached the door, she heard Lillian curse. “Is everything all right?” Emma asked.
Lillian was sitting at her desk, hammering the keyboard on her laptop. “It’s this damn laptop. It’s frozen again.”
“I can take a look at it if you’d like,” Emma said. “I’m pretty good with computers.”
“Go ahead,” She pushed the laptop to the side. “It’s been acting up for weeks now. I don’t know what’s wrong with it. I’ve been meaning to have IT look at it, but I haven’t had the time.”
“Let me see what I can do.”
Emma rounded the table and leaned down over the laptop, her arm brushing against Lillian’s as she reached for the keyboard. Goosebumps sprouted on her skin. Hunched over the desk like this, she was so close to Lillian. She could feel the heat of Lillian’s body, could smell the light, zesty scent of her hair.
Remembering herself Emma pressed a few keys, forcing the frozen browser window to close. “There,” Emma said. “It’s working now, but it’s only temporary.”
Lillian sighed with relief. “Thank you.”
“Glad I could help. Is there anything else I can do for you, Lillian?”
Emma turned her head to look at Lillian. The other woman’s gaze was fixed on Emma, a fire in her eyes that sent a shiver down Emma’s neck. Then and there, Emma understood what that look was—desire barely restrained.
Emma’s heart started to race. It would be the simplest thing to lean down and kiss her…
“No,” Lillian said softly.
“What?” Emma asked, enthralled by Lillian’s gaze.
“No.” Lillian swiveled her chair away from Emma and pulled her laptop back in front of her. “There’s nothing else I need from you.”
Emma blinked, her trance broken. “Okay.”
Her head spinning, she made her way to the door. As she left the room, Emma caught a glimpse of Lillian’s pale eyes following her on the way out.
7
Emma
“Good afternoon, Lillian,” Emma said.
“Emma.” Lillian gave her a curt nod and dropped some files onto her desk. “Can you type these up and send them out?”
“No problem.” Emma shot Lillian a smile. “Is there anything else you need?”
“No,” Lillian said firmly. “That’s all.”
Emma watched Lillian disappear into her office. She and Lillian had barely spoken all day. Since that night the two of them worked overtime together, Lillian had been alternating between being hot and cold, distant and inviting.
It was driving Emma crazy, making her want to act up just to elicit a reaction. Emma didn’t even know she was doing it at first. But it was working. Every time Emma was around Lillian, she could feel something radiating from her. It was something like a need to put Emma in her place.
And Emma wanted nothing more than to be put in her place by Lillian.
She was being reckless, but she didn’t care. For once in her life, she wanted to throw caution to the wind and give in to her desires.
“Hi, Emma.” Bridget appeared beside her desk. “Sheryl’s retirement party is in a couple of hours. Are you coming?”
“Sure.” Emma had forgotten all about it. Sheryl was the office manager and had been working at AG&W since day one. Emma barely knew her. She didn’t know anyone in the office other than Bridget. But her social life wasn’t exactly booming, so it couldn’t hurt to get to know her colleagues.
“Trust me, this party will be worth going to,” Bridget said. “I heard the partners let the organizers go all out. Something about boosting staff morale. There’s going to be champagne and everything.”
“Okay.” Emma wasn’t at all surprised that her workplace had no problem providing the staff with drinks on the clock. Apparently, half of the senior lawyers drank on the job.
“Great. See you in the conference room in a few hours.” Bridget wandered off to someone else’s desk.
A notification popped up on Emma’s monitor. It was an email from Lillian with yet more tasks for Emma to do. She seemed to be avoiding calling Emma into her office. Emma read over the email and got back to work. The next few hours passed by quickly. It was Friday, and Emma was determined to finish everything off so that she could go home after the party. Once she was done with her work, she emailed it back to Lillian and wandered down to the conference room.
Emma stopped in the doorway. The party was much classier than any work party that she’d been to. Instead of tacky balloons and a store-bought cake, there were fancy-looking canapes and red velvet cupcakes. The room was packed, no doubt because they were getting paid to stand around and drink champagne. Everyone in the office seemed to be there. Everyone except for Lillian.
Emma wasn’t surprised. Lillian probably considered something like this a waste of time. But still, Emma was disappointed.
Emma spotted Bridget standing around with a group of people in the corner. She walked over to them. Bridget smiled and moved aside so that Emma could join the conversation. Monica, who worked in accounting, was speaking in hushed whispers about the firm’s finances.
“Look, all I’m saying is that AG&W has seen better days. It’s no secret that Gordon Sr. was using the firm like his own personal bank account. We still haven’t quite recovered.”
“Think they’re going to start firing people?” Bridget asked.
“I don’t think so.” Monica finished off the last of the champagne in her glass. “Not yet, anyway.”
The group was silent, no doubt p
rocessing the information they’d just heard. Although Emma had only heard the end of the conversation, she started to wonder if she had jumped onto a sinking ship. No wonder the higher-ups were throwing a party to boost morale.
Bridget broke the tension by introducing Emma to the people she hadn’t met yet. It was a big office, so there were quite a few of her coworkers who she’d only seen in passing.
“Emma is Ms. White’s assistant,” Bridget said.
“Yikes.” A woman whose name Emma had already forgotten gave her a sympathetic look. “I don’t envy you.”
“She’s not that bad,” Emma said.
“Are we talking about the same person? She once called me into her office and gave me a ten-minute lecture because I forgot to CC her on an email.”
Monica chimed in. “I’ve been working here for five years and she hasn’t even bothered to learn my name.”
Bridget murmured in agreement. “I’ve lost track of how many of the interns she’s made cry.”
The sound of a spoon tapping against a champagne glass rang out through the room.
“That’s Avery,” Bridget told her. “I hope you like long speeches.”
As the speech began, Emma’s mind returned to their earlier conversation. Everyone else’s perceptions of Lillian were totally different to hers. Sure, Lillian was strict and demanding. And, from overhearing several Lillian’s phone calls, domineering and abrasive. But Lillian seemed to have warmed up to Emma, recent behavior aside. That had to mean something.
The speeches finished, and the group thinned until only Bridget, Monica, and Emma were left. Bridget took the opportunity to point out everyone in the room that she had juicy information on. Bridget loved to gossip, and there was a lot of gossip in this office. Based on what Bridget told her, half of her coworkers were sleeping with each other.
When the conversation shifted to the firm’s former employees, Emma excused herself and went to grab a glass of champagne. She’d already had one, but another wouldn’t hurt. She was going home soon anyway. Emma picked up a glass, then paused, an idea forming in her mind. She grabbed a second glass.
