“It’ll take me all night,” he hissed.
Shrugging a lazy shoulder, I stood and went over to take my heavy winter coat from the peg where it hung on the wall near the coffee nook. “Then why are you standing there instead of moving? If you want decent sleep, then it’s on you.” I pulled on my coat and started to button it because it was getting bitterly cold now that we were into December. New Gothenburg winters could be brutal. Carefully I pulled my black leather gloves from my pockets and couldn’t help but feel taller as he fixated on me slipping them on. I hadn’t seen anyone that intent on leather clothing since the last time I went to Triple X, one of the local BDSM clubs. Made me wonder about little Mr. Kalinski. “And I expect the work to be done right. If there’s even one paper out of order when I check through tomorrow, you’ll redo them.”
“First of all, I wouldneverhave papers out of order. Second, you can’t do this to me.”
Shaking my head, I went back to my desk and powered down my computer. I also checked all of my drawers and the door to Vane’s office to make sure they were locked. Last thing I needed was my feisty assistant’s assistant getting the idea that he might be able to dig up dirt while I wasn’t here. It would be delightful if he broke into something—such an easy excuse to fire him.
So far, he’d been a perfect employee. Not even a second late. He had to know he was under the gun. It was too bad I had zero real complaints, or he would be gone already. If only he’d found another way to get here, I might have been happy to have him work with me.
“I already did do it. You have your orders.” It was on the tip of my tongue to add a “boy,” but I stopped myself. He wasn’t my boy and never would be, even if his outraged big brown eyes made me want to stare too long. I adjusted my collar as I stepped toward him, and it was an unreasonably good feeling to have his shoulders hunch as I strode closer. I wasn’t an intimidating man under normal circumstances, not by a long shot, but I liked seeing the wariness enter his eyes and the color explode on his cheeks. I still wasn’t sure what that was all about. Anger? Embarrassment that he felt he still didn’t have the type of job he thought he deserved?
His Adam’s apple bobbed, and he glanced away from me toward the floor in defeat.
“How long will you keep doing this to me?” His voice cracked and my heart jolted. This was new. “I really wanted this job… sir.” My eyelids almost fluttered closed, but I didn’t allow myself to revel too much in this obedience I’d finally won from him. My victory had been earned by a long day and a battering ram of horrendously boring work.
“To date, has it ever entered your head to apologize to Mr. Elwood’s fiancé, or Mr. Elwood?”
Kalinski’s nostrils flared and he tilted his head up to glower at me. He had a thin face, though it was far from unattractive. He had perfect angles, and the shadows in the room more than did him justice. I wanted to touch his jaw—once, somehow—just to know what that long line felt like.
“I wasn’t wrong, okay?” His shout jerked me out of my thoughts. “They were doing something they shouldn’t have been.” His eyes snapped fire as he scowled.
“Oh, of course, but what you did was worse. You offered nothing to get your position, except the assertion that you have the right to it. You don’t even have your degree yet.” I shook my head at him. “How’s that coming along?”
He hung his head. “The last two classes are online, so I can do the job, too. They’refine.”
But I could tell he was bluffing. The slope of his shoulders and the flush that brightened on his cheeks gave him away. He was fucking up with school, I’d wager, because he was trying to stay on top of work here—and I’d made sure there were many, many things that needed his attention.
“So you’re lying to meandyou never apologized?”
His jaw hardened until I thought it would crack. “I won’t apologize for doing what I needed to do to get ahead.” He snorted and glanced in the direction Vane had disappeared. “What did you do? Did you let him fuck you, like Jaxson did, to get your job?” He said that like bottoming was the worst thing a man could do, and my estimation of him fell even more. His eyes seemed too wide, maybe a little scared, though, and that also had me thawing toward him—but only a smidgen.
Laughing, I stepped back. “Oh no. I top. Exclusively. Vane and I would have never worked out.” He flinched at that and dropped his gaze to the paperwork at his feet. It wasn’t true, but he didn’t need to know that. “I happened to get this job by being better than everyone else who applied.” I smiled at him. “Has that ever happened to you?”
Kalinski didn’t say a word, simply sank to his knees and drew his abandoned stapler closer to him, but his shoulders curled, and I wasn’t necessarily happy that I’d found a way to break him. It wasn’t fun to see him hurt and upset, not like it was to watch him huff and puff over work he thought he was too good to do.
“Did you figure it out yet?” I couldn’t believe I was tossing him a clue to make myself feel better, but his pout was more than a saint could handle.
“What?” he asked harshly.
“How to start getting better assignments.”
He glanced up with his forehead crinkled in a way that was positively handsome. What a travesty. “I’m not apologizing to them!”
Chuckling, I went to my desk and picked up my messenger bag, then slung the strap over my shoulder. I let the silence between us drag out until I had my hand on the door to leave. “You will find things go easier for you if you learn to do as you’re told.” I gave his backside one last leer, but he didn’t glance up. Those cheeks just looked so squeezable. Or was that spankable? Shaking my head at myself, I opened the door, and almost felt bad that I’d trashed his entire night.
Guilt started eating at me by the time I hit the ground floor, and with a sigh I pushed the button to head back up to the fifth floor, rather than stepping out and going home. Hell, what if what I was doing tonight caused him to fail whatever classes he was taking? What if I personally kept him from graduating? That should be great because the plan was to make him quit, but I wasn’t an outright monster. I stepped out of the elevators and hesitated outside the door to the office. I almost just left again, but then yanked open the door and stopped dead. Kalinski sat doubled over on one of the plush couches on the left side of the office. He had his forehead pressed to his knees and his hands on his eyes while his shoulders shook.
“Fuck,” I whispered to myself. He hadn’t noticed me yet. Now I really did feel like a jerk.
“Goddamn it, stop your sniveling. Get up,” I demanded, and he jolted back and nearly hurt himself trying to scrub at his face. He’d been crying and his pale skin was blotchy and red from it, not exactly attractive, but I ate up the sight. I was half proud I’d pushed him here, and half disgusted with myself for enjoying it so much.
“Get your things and come with me.”
“What… why?” He gasped in a shaky breath.
“You’re going home for the night.”
“But—”
