my office like you owned it?”
“You told me-”
“I don’t give a shit what you think I told you,” I said. “You have no idea what I’m working on. Right now, everyone’s job is on the line. Got it?”
Maya swallowed hard. “Okay…”
“You tell anyone that and I’ll bring in the lawyers,” I said. “I don’t need some secretary spilling inside news all over the company or outside this building. Maybe this is just a job for you, Maya, but this is a career for a lot of people. Including me. Including Jezebel. She’s got a prominent position in a company we work closely with. Now I have to go rebuild that relationship and trust. Do you think I want to have to handle that right now?”
“Would you like me to call and apologize to her?” Maya offered. “I can smooth things over.”
I laughed. “You? Smooth things over? You’re lucky I let you work in an office with so many windows.”
“Oh.”
“You know what I mean, right?”
“Sure,” Maya said. “I’m stupid and clumsy. You’re surprised I haven’t broken a window yet.”
I nodded. “Well done.”
“I have the last of the Smith report for you,” Maya said. She slowly stood up. “I highlighted the parts you wanted…”
She lifted a folder off her desk and stared at me.
She wore some kind of sweater that looked like a piece of carpet with a hole in the middle for her head to poke through. She never wore makeup. She never wore perfume. She never wore any kind of clothing to show off anything she liked about herself.
That told me she either had zero confidence in herself, or she truly didn’t give a damn what anyone thought.
Why did that intrigue me?
Why not?
She was my secretary.
My last secretary took all of a week before trying to hit on me.
Casually touching my hand when I took something from her.
Always finding a way to be lingering in and near my office.
Wearing dresses that were so tight, I could see everything.
Put it this way… if she stood near one of the air conditioning vents, her nipples would make their presence known.
I missed my old secretary.
Too bad she moved to California, huh?
Because Maya was…
I moved toward her desk and took the folder.
I opened it and flipped through some of the pages and highlighted parts.
“One thing I noticed about them was that they-”
“Did I ask you to give an opinion on this?”
“No,” Maya said.
“Good. Do you remember where the good scotch is in my office?”
“Yes.”
“Go get me a glass,” I said. “I’ll flip through these notes.”
“Of course,” Maya said.
She took her big ass computer glasses off and hurried around her desk.
Jeans.
She wore jeans to the office.
I let it slide.
I looked over my shoulder, watching her dance along the floor to get me a drink.
For some reason, I compared her to Jezebel.
Jezebel walked like a vixen. One leg in front of the other, knowing how to make her ass move, her hips swinging left to right.
But Maya…
Whatever.
This was the problem now.
I had been so revved up for Jezebel that my brain was wired to find something else to fuck.
Trust me, it wasn’t going to be Maya.
As I flipped through the papers in the folder, Maya’s screen lit up on her phone.
I was the boss.
This was all mine.
Everything in the office was mine too.
I looked down at her phone.
Someone named Cam had texted her.
“Can’t wait to see you soon. Only two hours to go! Would you prefer me to bring the roses to your door or surprise you throughout the night?”
I read the text out loud.
I shook my head.
What kind of moron would text a woman that?
“Loser,” I whispered.
Maya returned to the office with a glass of scotch for me.
I dropped the folder to the desk and turned around.
I took the glass from her and sipped it.
“You might want to go back and pour a drink for yourself.”
“Why?”
“We’ve got a long night ahead of us here.”
“What?”
“That report isn’t done yet,” I said. “I want you to go through some of the transcripts from the software meetings we’ve had.”
“There’s a lot…”
“Correct,” I said. “You didn’t have plans tonight, did you?”
Maya’s cheeks turned red. “Uh… well…”
“Nothing you can’t reschedule, right?”
“Right,” she said.
I nodded and lifted my glass. “Cheers, Maya. Why don’t you take a little bit to get settled and I’ll check on you later, okay?”
I could feel the anger coming off her.
And that was okay.
We now had something in common.
She cockblocked me…
So, I did it right back to her.
I kept a close eye on the time.
There was always