Dating the Boss (Blue Harbor #2) - Jaclyn Osborn Page 0,10

face in my hands as I slumped down in my chair.

He should be back from his dentist appointment any moment. I was already on the verge of hyperventilating. All I could do was profusely apologize and hope he didn’t fire me. My job was stressful and kind of chaotic at times, but I enjoyed working for him. If he fired me, where would I go? Anyplace I applied at after this would want to know my reason for leaving the advertising agency, and I’d probably be marked as a pervert or something and never find work in the industry again—

“Reed?”

Well, there went my heart. It shot from my chest and broke through the ceiling at his voice. I glanced up at him.

“Yes, Mr. Sawyer?”

“In my office,” he said before going inside the room, leaving the door open for me.

Come on. You can do this.

My attempt at self-motivation did nothing for my shaky legs as I stood and walked across the room toward his office. Each step closer got harder and harder to take, as if my feet were submerged in wet concrete. And don’t even get me started on my breathing, or better yet, lack thereof. I couldn’t suck enough air into my lungs.

“Close the door,” Daniel said once I was inside his office. His expressionless face gave nothing away. I couldn’t tell if he was mad or not.

“Y-Yes, sir.” With my whole body shaking, I closed the door and stepped farther into the room. And then, because I tended to ramble when I was nervous, my mouth opened and a bunch of shit fell out. “About last night, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to send that to you. You see, I was talking to this guy. Sexting, really. And yeah, I know it’s not exactly classy to send texts like that to anyone but—”

“Enough.” He held up a hand, and I snapped my mouth shut. “Accidents happen. I messaged you on your personal phone. It’s not like you were… sexting, as you put it… from a work computer or during work hours. I’ve texted the wrong person once or twice before as well.”

I could’ve collapsed from relief. He didn’t seem mad at all. If anything, he seemed as awkward as me, though he held his composure way better than I did.

“You’re not gonna fire me?” I asked, my voice a higher pitch than normal.

Damn nerves.

“No, I’m not firing you.” Daniel took a step toward me. He was a good four to five inches taller than me, making me tilt my head up to meet his hard, blue eyes. “Let’s not ever discuss this again. It happened, and we’ve addressed it. Now we need to move past it. Agreed?”

I nodded, too frazzled to speak.

“Good.” He came even closer, and my whole body tingled in response. My lips parted as my eyes fell to his mouth and his sharp jawline. He took another step toward me, and I was more than prepared to let him touch me. Fuck me. I didn’t care. He reached forward, his arm brushing mine… and opened the door behind me. “I have a meeting to prepare for.”

“Oh.” I cleared my throat and did my best to calm my stupid racing heart. My face was on fire. Had I really expected my boss to come on to me after just saying we didn’t need to talk about the sexting incident ever again? What was wrong with me? I definitely had a few screws loose somewhere. “Right. I’ll, uh, get to work.”

“You do that,” he said, not taking his eyes off me. And fuck, he was still standing so close. Close enough for me to smell his cologne and get just a hint of mint toothpaste, probably from his cleaning at the dentist.

With my face scorching hot, I turned away from him and walked to my desk, praying I didn’t trip on my way there. It would be my luck to embarrass myself even further. When I looked back at his office, the door was closed.

I jumped when my phone buzzed.

Quinn: How did it go? Have you talked to him?

Me: Yeah. I didn’t get fired. Yay.

Quinn: See? I told you.

Me: I should probably stop texting so he doesn’t change his mind.

Quinn: Okay. Ttyl.

Another message came through, this one from my social media account. I looked at it and heaved a sigh. It was from Monty and consisted of two lines of eggplants, followed by a water spurting emoji at the end, along with a message that read,