Her Unexpected Admirer Page 0,17

boss or was he the kind that encouraged people to work harder? Her breath caught in the back of her throat as she thought back to all the times he’d either encouraged her or commanded her last night. She shivered and it wasn’t because of the cold. It was only because of all the things he’d gotten her to enjoy last night. Goodness, her eyes almost rolled into the back of her head as she thought of all the things they’d done last night.

She sighed and pulled her jacket closer to ward off the cold. It didn’t do any good to think about Davis. Their time together was done. It had been wonderful, but if her father ever found out what she’d done, he would go ballistic! He might even fire her. She remembered something in the employee handbook he’d had her read that mentioned a morality clause.

She shook her head, clearing it of both the worry over her job as well as her incredible night with Davis. She had to hurry and pushed onward, thinking the whole time that she really needed to find some time to work out. She was badly out of shape, huffing and puffing as she walked down the sidewalk. By the time she reached her apartment building, which was not in the good section of Boston but it was cheap and available, she was gasping for breath. She didn’t have time to let her body relax though. She raced up the stairs, her hand holding the stitch in her side. Once in her apartment, she slammed the door, tore off her clothes and just dumped them on the floor as she raced into her bathroom.

She’d never showered so quickly in her life. In and out in less than five minutes. Back out, she dried off and pulled on another black suit, the only color her father thought appropriate for the office. Black stockings and black heels, her hair pulled back into a hopefully neat bun, a touch of lipstick and she dashed out of her apartment again, trying to put mascara on while riding down in the painfully slow elevator.

When she reached the street level again, she stepped out and remembered how cold it was. She’d forgotten her coat again, but she didn’t have time to go back up to her apartment to find it. She’d just have to brave the cold and hope that it warmed up during the day.

As she walked back to her father’s office, she realized how sore her legs were. And sore in very strange places. She shivered as memories of the previous night popped back into her mind despite her repeated attempts to focus her mind on something, anything else. Yes, that had definitely been a once in a lifetime night. She couldn’t afford to be so crazy. She had to learn to become a good accountant just like her father repeatedly demanded of her.

Kate reminded herself of her options. Find a new accounting job or possibly even go full time as a painter. The check she’d received was huge, enough for her to live off of for a while. Could she risk it? Did she dare?

She sighed as she pulled the door to her office building open, stepping through gratefully to the warmth. An accountant. She knew that some people loved numbers and calculations. She thought of it as a death sentence. Or at the least, a prison sentence.

She had three paintings almost finished. But would they sell as well as the others? She pressed the button to call the elevator, biting her lip as she thought about all the problems. She couldn’t risk it. Her father would ban her from the industry if she quit to do something as frivolous as art. If she failed, she’d be unemployed and probably unemployable. Her father had told her over and over that she had to make it in his firm before she could venture out into the real world. He wouldn’t give her a reference at the level she’d been performing and no one would hire her without a reference from her first position.

Good grief, why had she done this to herself? Why had she trapped herself into a job she hated?

Because her father had convinced her that this was the only job she was qualified for. And perhaps he was right, she thought. Perhaps she should just hunker down and figure out tricks to help her find the right number, the right information, while doing all of