If she was planning to do it here, a relationship with me would be impossible. There was no way I could give her a promotion that large without accusations flying about my reasoning for doing so. Not if we were together.
The direness of the thought was interrupted when Jeremy came strutting in with his usual level of overconfidence. Janice assured me that he was doing fine and pulling his weight, but I had no intention of letting him leave here with that damn smirk.
He still didn’t know his place.
When he dropped into the seat and gave me an expectant look, I pushed his check across the desk. Before he could reach out to grab it, I dropped a copy of my employee handbook on top.
“Do you recognize that?”
“The handbook? Yeah, Janice gave me one when I came in for the interview.”
“Did you read it?”
The half-shrug I got in return was enough of an answer. With an overdramatic eye roll, I stood up and flipped it to the relevant page.
“Read this,” I ordered, my finger resting on the paragraph.
“What’s it say?”
“Read it,” I hissed.
He let out a huff but leaned forward and began scanning the words. His lips moved in silence as he read and I could feel my eye twitching at the irritating habit.
It must have clicked half-way through because he abruptly stopped and reared back, snorting before he said, “Oh, come on! It was only a joke.”
“Sexual harassment isn’t a joke,” I said gravely, clenching my teeth when he rolled his eyes. “This is serious. I don’t care how you and your buddies treated women in college. You won’t fucking talk to women like that here.”
“It was just a pick-up line. You should have seen the skirt she was—”
I slammed my fist on the desk, taking pleasure in how he jumped. “Don’t finish that sentence. I don’t care what she was wearing. You’re just lucky Karen didn’t lodge a formal complaint. If I hear one more word about you harassing anyone—and I mean anyone—you’re gone. We clear?”
I swear the little fucker was about to argue, but then his mouth snapped shut and he nodded his assent as he rose from the chair.
“We’re clear.”
My eyes were narrowed into slits as I watched him leave the office. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect that boy to learn when to shut his mouth.
“I guess miracles can happen,” I said with a chuckle after the door shut. “And speaking of miracles…” I eased back into my chair and pressed the button. “Send Miss Jones in.”
It’d been a stressful day so I knew my hair was fucked, but I ran a hand through it anyway. I stood up when a last-second idea sprang to mind and undid my suit jacket, draping it over the back of the chair and undoing the cufflinks in a hurry.
I was just finishing rolling up the second sleeve when she walked in. She froze in the doorway and stared at me with wide eyes.
The cocky thoughts that came to mind were silenced as I stared at her in return.
Her dark hair was twisted up and tied in a relatively neat knot at the top of her head, giving her that librarian look that most men had fantasied about at some point in their lives. There wasn’t anything revealing about her outfit except the bit of thigh shown from the slit in her skirt, but the way everything clung to her petite frame made her all the more alluring. A mysterious present I was dying to unwrap.
“Hi,” she said in a high, nervous voice. “Janice said you wanted to see me?”
“Yes. Come.” I gestured toward the seat and waited for her to sink into it before I followed suit. “I like to personally deliver the first paycheck to new employees and go over any questions they may have.”
A look of relief passed over her pretty face and I could physically feel the shift in mood. I idly wondered if she would assume she was being fired every time I called her into my office.
The images of her bent over my desk popped into my mind unbidden and I tightly clenched my teeth together as I felt my cock hardening in my slacks. Fuck.
“Thank you,” she said graciously as I slid the check across the desk. “I don’t have any questions, though.”
“Really? Not one?”
Her head slowly shook back and forth before she frowned and asked, “Should I have questions?”
None of the others did, but I was secretly hoping to prolong this meeting as much as possible.
“Not necessarily. Would you mind if I asked you a couple of questions?”
“Not at all,” she said with a bright smile. “Fire away.”
A hundred things I could ask rolled through my brain at once. A hundred stupid things related to the job that would inevitably lead to a long conversation, which was what I ultimately wanted.