CHAPTER 1
Paige
After three months working at Carlson, Peterson Attorneys at Law, I still haven’t figured out how to crack the scowl permanently etched on my boss’s face.
So I do the next best thing—irritate him.Daily.
I pull out a new packet of sticky notes from my collection and slap one onto the file Mr. Carlson is waiting for. It’s got a rainbow-and-sparkles theme, entirely over-the-top and contradicting the professional atmosphere of the office. He’s going to hate it.
Perfect.
Taylor stops at the edge of my desk, coffee in hand, as she peers at my latest act of provocation and snickers. “Still getting away with it?”
My grin is devious. “Yep.”
Mr. Carlson’s executive assistant, Jessica, is on leave, and I’m the only replacement from the temp agency who’s been able to put up with his grumpy ass for longer than a few days.
He needs me.
I want him.
It’s the only reason I’ve stuck around.
Once he hit me with that disapproving scowl, I was a goner. Naughty-secretary fantasies slammed me one after the other once I started working with him until my library was full of grumpy-boss-themed office-romance books that my smut-addled brain devoured.
I couldn’t help it.
I live in the fictional world as much as the real world.
Reading and reviewing books is a passion I unabashedly indulge in every night. Imagining myself as the main character, tempting and teasing, exploring and enticing, shameless in my desire to gratify secret urges, is intoxicating.
It was manageable until I started working for the epitome of the grumpy boss-trope: Parker Carlson, broody, seductive, turning me on with a single growl.
He’s far too appealing to this reader’s dirty mind.
I’ve pictured reenacting my favorite spicy scenes with my grumpy boss, but as bratty as I’ve acted, my grumpy boss has never been inappropriate—at all.
It’s so frustrating.
This attraction is not going to be satisfied until he locks me in his office, demands I get on my knees, shut the fuck up, and take that dick like a good girl.1
With only two days left on my employment contract and a yearlong working vacation in Europe planned, I need to figure out how to seduce my boss so I can wrap up these feelings in a neat little bow and leave, with nothing unfinished hanging over my head.
“Are you all packed?”
I toss the rest of the sticky notes in with all the others and close the drawer. “I never unpacked.”
Taylor sighs. “Your life must be exciting, moving from place to place, meeting so many new people.”
No permanent address. No emotional entanglements.
No one to miss.
I force a smile. “It’s great.”
My phone vibrates on my desk, lighting up with likes and comments on a book review I posted to my profile this morning. I latch onto the distraction, opening the post before remembering that I have not shared my secret obsession with anyone at the office.
Taylor’s eyes widen. “That’s a lot of notifications. What are they for?”
