Didn’t happen, and I couldn’t explain why I was determined to shake her. See her ruffled. Get her flustered.
I scrubbed my hand over my face, a feeble attempt at slowing my galloping heart rate. Nothing prepared me for Andy. I knew I’d be interviewing one of the most accomplished and focused candidates to apply for our fledgling apprenticeship, but I didn’t anticipate an unflappable spine of steelenthralledby my work.
It got even more interesting when she wouldn’t let me shut her down. She wanted to learn from me. She was demanding it. I knew it was inappropriate but the moment those words passed her lips I started drowning in fantasies far filthier than anything my mind had ever produced.
Oh, yes. I could teach her plenty.
My head and my dick wrestled for control in ways I’d never before experienced when Andy told me she wasn’t finished. But noticing attractive women never fucked with my mind. Was this it? Was my sanity on its way out?
People didn’t usually take me on, yet I had the distinct impression Andy would provoke the shit out of me with her poignant commentary and patronizingly dismissive “hm.” I could see her sitting back and allowing me a tiny smile while I went ballistic over that “hm.”
I barely noticed Shan’s babbling.
“…perfect for you. She’s taking her licensing boards in June but if this works out, we could bring her on long term to build your capacity. She said she’s in town the rest of the week. I say we get her back this afternoon and make an offer.”
No.Hellno. Not with her maddeningly unfazed responses to my brutal questions. Not with her steady gazes and precise expressions. Not with those dark eyes that were altogether too wise, too perceptive for her age. Andy needed to take her eyes and that smile far away from this office. Mentoring her was out of the question.
“No. She’s like a…a feral cat, Shan.”
“What?” She dropped into a seat across the conference table, her face twisted in irritated confusion. I loved Shannon in full-on Black Widow ass-kicking mode unless she was aiming herAvengers-style wrath at me.
“All that hair and her voice. She seemed annoying.” Both of those things were very real problems. I’d never seen so much hair in my life. Thick, dark, uncontrollably curling. It was mythical. Odysseus would have had something to say about that hair.
“You’re annoying. This whole process is annoying. I want to find a freaking apprentice for you and move on with my life. Is that so hard? We’re talking about six months, Patrick. I don’t see why you can’t handle working with someone like Andy for six months. We’ve been searching since November. It’s time to nut up, man.”
“She acts like she knows it all.” I shook my head. “I can’t see her cutting it at a jobsite, Shan. Doesn’t look like she can lift more than a latte.”
I couldn’t help it; lame responses kept spewing out while my brain fixated on that voice. If aged whiskey had a sound, it would be Andy’s voice, all heady and rich, with a slow burn as it went down.
“Did you notice those fancy boots? I’m not about to wait on some girl because she tiptoes around in heels and is afraid of messing up her nails.”
I noticed the boots. I noticed them and the long legs encased in them about four seconds after I ripped my eyes away from her hair. They went all the way up to her knees. All I could think about was wrapping those legs around my neck and feeling those ridiculous heels digging into my back while she writhed against my face.
Yep. That was a normal thought for the start of an interview.
Shannon rested her forehead against the table alongside her flattened palms. “The universe needs to help a bitch out.”
“And there’s her complete lack of originality,” I continued, pulling at any thread possible to weaken Andy’s candidacy. “She wants to learn from me? No design vision of her own? That’s weak. I can’t work with that.”
Mentoring Andy would be the cruelest form of punishment.
Shannon lifted her head, leveling me with a patented Black Widow death stare reserved for moments when I was epically fucking things up.
“As your counsel,” she started, her voice ripe with loosely restrained anger, “I am advising you to evaluate Miss Asani on her credentials rather than her shoes or hair. I am advising you to read her résumé, specifically where it lists her extensive jobsite experience as well as hands-on experience with Habitat. She’s built fucking houses with her manicured hands, asshole.”
She slammed her hand on the pages in front of me. I glanced at the name streaming across the top of her résumé: Andy A. M. Asani. I never liked people with two middle names.
“As your sister and a professional woman myself, I am advising you to get your head out of your ass and recognize that she is the most exceptional candidate you have met—by far. Please keep in mind that people come to interviews looking their best. They don’t show up in tromp-around-a-construction-site clothes.” She sighed and folded her arms over her chest. “I’d also love to know when you became such a raging misogynist. It’s quite surprising to hear after all this time you evaluate a candidate’s competency on the height of her heels.”
“I don’t think of you as a girl. You’re more of a honey badger.” I lifted a shoulder. I could not mentor Andy. I didn’t care if Shannon was right. “Can’t get around the originality issue. I want someone with thoughts of their own.”
Shannon fisted her hands and banged them against the table.
“Last week you said no on Robert because he had too many of his own ideas, and you wouldn’t be able to teach him a fucking thing. Which one is it, Patrick?”
Her screech brought work outside the conference room to a momentary halt. It wasn’t Shannon’s first and it wouldn’t be her last today. Shrugging, I met her narrowed eyes.
She was my best friend and confidante but I couldn’t tell her I spent the past hour looking at Andy’s mouth because I had never seen such fuckable lips, or that looking at those lips on a daily basis would drive me to alcohol dependency if they didn’t give me an aneurysm first. I couldn’t tell Shannon that, while listening to Andy’s responses, I spread her across the table, tied her hands behind her back, and fucked her six times in my mind.
