The Tycoon's Revenge(21)

The strap of her bag slipped down her shoulder and her hands were full of coffee, so she could do nothing about it. She stepped into Derek’s office and sighed. Of course he was there, ahead of her. The man never slept late, or showed up even two minutes past seven in the morning.

She was used to being the first one to work but it was impossible with him around. She couldn’t leave any earlier, since she had to get her son sent off to school. She set the extra coffee cup down in front of him and then took her place in front of the much smaller pile of personnel folders.

“Thanks,” Derek muttered, as he grabbed the cup, without so much as looking up. She had only brought him one, because the other day she’d come in with a large Carmel macchiato and he’d thrown down a fifty and told her to bring him one too, since she was stopping anyway.

He hadn’t bothered to ask her if it would be inconvenient, hadn’t bothered to ask period, he had just assumed she’d do it for him. It hadn’t been a battle worth fighting, so she just picked him up the coffee. It wasn’t like she had to go out of her way. Besides, he was now paying for hers too and the morning boosts weren’t cheap.

She seriously would live off the coffees and nothing else, if she could get away with it. She had done that a couple different days and by the end, she was shaking all over but her house had gotten incredibly clean.

“We have a couple more interviews to do today, with the last of the previous employee’s. I want you to go through the applications that have come in over the week and weed through them. Find the best candidates and schedule them for next week to come in for interviews. We need to get those positions filled as soon as possible,” Derek said, as he finally looked up.

Unfortunately for her, when he looked up, she was busy staring at his body in inappropriate places. His brows rose and she couldn’t stop the deep flush that stained her cheeks. She turned away from him, praying he’d just pretend it hadn’t happened.

She needed to get out of his office, because every time she looked at the table, she pictured herself sitting there with him between her thighs. She nodded her head and then pretended to be engrossed with the file in front of her.

Derek could feel himself tightening the second Jasmine walked into the room. No matter how subtle her scent was, he could pick it out, even if she was in a room surrounded by over scented socialites. He’d grown to crave her scent and wanted to bury his head in her shoulder and just draw the smell of her in. He wanted to bury himself in many other areas of her body as well.

When he looked up to see her eyes on the very body part he wanted to sink into her It took all of his many years of tightly reined in control not to grab her and have a repeat performance like the one earlier in the week. He found himself actually gripping the desk to keep from walking to her.

They called in the last four employees and only kept one of them on. The last interview wasn’t going well. “I appreciate your years of service with the former Freeman Corporation but Titan industries has a different vision of the future and I don’t think we will make a good fit together,” Derek said, calmly and professionally.

“You sorry bastard, you come in here with your corporate take-over and replace most of the people without even blinking. You’ll get what is coming to you,” the man shouted. He was so angry, there was spit flying out of his mouth. He stood up like he was going to come over and deck Derek. Derek stood up to his full height and narrowed his gaze at the man.

“I see you’re nice and cozy with the enemy, Jasmine. Your father would be so disappointed in you but that’s nothing new, he’s always been disappointed. He only allowed you to keep the job here because he was too embarrassed to have you out in the work force, sullying his good name. You have never done anything right. He’s complained many times about you and your bastard son,” the man continued shouting.

The second he turned on Jasmine, Derek lost his cool. He was going to deck the man and damn the consequences. He was walking over to do just that when the guy spoke his last line. Derek’s head whipped towards Jasmine with shock, as he realized she had a son. He had no idea. There was nothing in her files. He wanted to know how old the kid was and if she was involved with the father. He was far more interested than he should be. He felt like he’d been kicked in the gut.

His temper exploded again when he saw her face, though. She was as white as a ghost and looked like she was going to pass out. “My father wouldn’t have said that,” she whispered, sounding like she was going to break apart at any moment.

“He’s said that and so much more. He can barely tolerate you. You’re so unbelievably naïve,” he spat and took a step towards her.