“Hey, Destiny. How’s the Morrison’s campaign coming?”
“Good, thanks, Mr. Knight.”
“Great. I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product.” His gaze wandered to me, and wouldn’t you know it, his smile vanished quicker than a peanut at a squirrel convention. “Have you finished that report on the fast-food consumer trends and demographics I asked for yesterday?”
“I’m almost done. I’m just checking that the margins are standard. It’s important to get those little details right, otherwise the report might be confusing.” I gave him a sarcastic smile. It was satisfying when his eye twitched, and his nostrils flared a tad.
Destiny glanced from me to Curtis and back again. “Ah, I’ll just leave you to it. Oh, and email me later, let me know if you’re coming to Kali’s birthday drinks at Murphy’s after work. Garth keeps telling me to make sure you’ll be there.” She rolled her eyes. I liked Garth, but not likethat. I hoped he wasn’t going to be a problem. Maybe he was just making sure I was included after I’d been moved.
I turned to Destiny and smiled, tuning out hotpants… ah… grumpypants. I’d never wondered what it would be like to run my hands up his strong thighs and squeeze his firm-looking behind. Not even once. Or twice. Or even five times. “I’ll definitely be there—been wanting to try that bar for a while. Email me the deets. Thanks for coming up to see me.”
She nodded at me, then smiled at Curtis. “Bye, sir.”
He smiled again, and I knew violence was never the answer, but I wanted to rip those stupidly sexy lips off and shove themdown his throat. Why was he so mean to me? Why did he hate me? I hadn’t thought it possible, but working for him was worse than working for Mark. At least I didn’t know Mark was horrible to me until the moment he was screwing Amanda in front of me and wouldn’t takeitout. He even let her lecture me while he was inside her. Who did that?
Argh, they deserved each other.
I hoped she enjoyed never having orgasms. The next guy I dated was going to give them to me. I wouldn’t settle for the unsatisfying hump job of a selfish lover ever again. This was the two thousands for goodness’ sake. Women were taking their power back, which included orgasms. Do better than my vibrator or forget it.
“Why are you growling?” Curtis stared at me, eyebrows raised.
Oops, caught spacing out again. “Are you still here?”
He folded his arms and planted his feet in a “don’t mess with me” stance. “There’s no fraternizing with co-workers.”
My forehead tightened. “What? Are you saying none of us can go for drinks together?”
He gave me an “are you stupid” look. “Of course not. But you can’t date anyone from work. It creates problems. If you want to date someone from this office, you’ll need to quit.”
I didn’t want to date Garth before, but I did now. Just to piss Curtis off. But it wasn’t worth losing my job for or upsetting Garth over. Besides, just thinking about kissing the guy from marketing made me shudder. Not that there was anything wrong with him. He just wasn’t the guy for me. Unfortunately. Life would be easier if we could just like the people who liked us. Unrequited crushes—not that I had a crush on Curtis; he was just eye candy—were such a waste of time.
Why could Curtis push my buttons so well? He riled me up more than my mother, and that was saying something. “What if I just want a one-night stand?” How far could I push him before hefired me? Was he even allowed to? I had to assume not, or I’d already be gone. There was no way a boss would allow the kind of insubordination I’d volleyed his way. But then again, he’d started by stepping up to the line and serving every single time. I was just trying to stay in the match.
His eyes were the gray blue of an ocean smothered by a stormy sky. Shadowed, ominous. I shivered. They sucked you into their depths, drowned you before you even realized you were in trouble. “Fired.”
I rolled my eyes with a full head throwback. This was me saying, “Look how ridiculous you are, silly man.” My neck twinged. Okay, so I’d overdone it a bit, but one could never be too subtle when conveying your message to a man. “How would you even know?”
He took a step toward me. Then another. Until he was inches from my desk. His subtle cologne slid over me, intoxicating, as he stared down at me. Looming had never been so sexy. I refused to lean away and let him think he could intimidate me.
I wasn’t scared of the big bad wolf.
They didn’t call me Donut Girl for nothing. Okay, so it wasn’t for any good reasons. Still… I lifted my chin. I wouldnotbe the first to look away and let him think I was weaker or that he was the boss of me. Okay, so he was.Ahem.
Somewhere in another dimension, my common sense was shouting something like, “Danger, danger.” But who needed common sense when you were playing the hottest game of chicken ever? I was pretty sure my nipples just hardened enough to rip through a normal bra. Thank God I was wearing a padded one. If Curtis knew he had this effect on me, he’d be disgusted, and I couldn’t bear to see that in his eyes. Argh, I hated hormones. What good was my brain if it capitulated to my vagina whenever a hot guy was near?
Come on, brain; you can do better than that. He’s a big jerk, and he’s been treating you like crap. Don’t let him walk all over you.
Just as my brain started to win, Curtis licked his lips. Just a brief sweep of the tip of his tongue against those soft pillows was enough to scatter my brain cells like sprinkles from a spilled container. Where was a donut when you needed to fan yourself or just put something in your mouth to look busy? I raised my hand to my lips, to make sure my tongue wasn’t hanging out.
“I have ways of finding out. Don’t try me.” His voice was all gravelly. I was pretty sure I was panting. Dammit. I bit my bottom lip, and his gaze dropped to my mouth. After a beat, Curtis blinked, stepped back, and quickly shook his head as if coming to his senses. “Send me that report. I don’t give a shit about the margins.”Ooh, he just swore. That wasn’t very professional. I was about to point it out, but he turned quickly and hurried back to his cave. He didn’t venture out for the rest of the afternoon. But it was too late. Discombobulation had set in, and my brain had officially clocked off for the day.
It was the end of my first week as the worst PA in the building, and I wasn’t doing much better as a spy. I was no closer to getting any information for Stephanie and Knight Senior, although I’d be researching who Marvin Black was.
At least I still had my job.
Somehow, that didn’t feel as comforting as it should.
CHAPTER 14
