Once Richard and Bertie, the accountant, were ensconced in their cubicles, Willow dropped her voice. “Don’t let Alaric intimidate you, honey. He can be gruff at times, but deep down he’s a real sweetheart. Give him time to know you.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. “Um, okay.”
I needed this job, and badly. If Mr. Alaric Desjardin turned out to be Satan himself, I’d smile and kiss his ass, then gush over how well his ass tasted. I’ll do handstands if that’s what’s needed to earn my pay and escape Roxanne’s house and hatred.
“Acquaint yourself with the website,” Willow suggested, standing over me as I sat, “and read the current blog articles. Take messages for Alaric, he’ll be in later. If you have questions, dear, I’m just down the hall.”
I smiled up at her. “Thank you for giving me this chance.”
“I hired the right person, Hayley.”
I hope so.
The morning passed without much fanfare. The blogs my predecessor had written were in dire need of editing. I tsked over the poorly written articles, and wondered how the boss had permitted them onto the website. I rewrote and replaced two of them, and began on the third when the front door opened.
I glanced up, half expecting the part time sales guy, a bro named Sammy.
It wasn’t Sammy.
I felt my jaw come unhinged and drop open.
If forced to speak in that moment, I’m sure only a squeak would emerge from my lips.
The dude who ambled in wore a casual, open throated, blue polo shirt with blue jeans and a black sport coat. His pale gray eyes, as cold as the Arctic winter, surveyed me with a strong disapproval. Though he said nothing, I felt sure he planned to give me the boot when he did. Calling him handsome, or good looking, or attractive fell far short of the mark. I’m not sure how to describe him, except to say he was Adonis fallen to earth.
His shaggy black hair was tipped with gray, although I felt sure he hadn’t reached his forties yet. Muscles rippled under his jacket and his abs flexed under the polo shirt. His broad shoulders reminded me of a young bull’s. If he picked me up with one hand, he could easily snap my spine with his fingers alone.
“Hullo,” he said with a clipped accent I couldn’t place. “You’re the new girl.”
I untangled my tongue enough to reply, “Uh, yeah. My first day.”
He grunted. “Any messages for me?”
“I, er –” I began, lowering my face to fumble for the two phone messages I’d taken during his absence. “Well, uh, here.”
Mr. Desjardin, my new boss, eyed me askance as if he thought of me as a new species of cockroach while accepting the messages. “Settling in all right?”
I tried to smile, and failed utterly. “Um, yes, sir. Willow, Mrs. McMillan, showed me everything.”
His icy eyes looked me up and down, his arrogance and contempt clear on his exceptionally handsome face. “Let’s see if you’ll last the week.”
Chapter Two
Alaric
“I don’t like her.”
I sat in my office with the heavy glass door closed and the small sliding window between Willow’s office and mine open. In the reception area, Hayley’s silver hair gleamed under the fluorescent lighting. Her fingers flew over the computer’s keyboard as she worked. True, she was gorgeous.
But I needed people who had brains more than I needed beauty.
“Give her time.”
I shook my head. “She’s as dumb as a box of rocks.”
“Hayley lacks confidence, Alaric, not smarts. She’s highly intelligent, but has been beaten down by life.”
“How do you know that?”
