“What I have?” she asked, confused.
“To offer me.”
I already knew plenty she could offer me in the bedroom, but I wanted to know what she did here. What she could do for mein my new business venture. I couldn’t treat her any differently than the other employees here, even if she was the only one I had slept with. This was business, after all.
“I-I was the personal assistant to my boss. Well, my old boss.” She corrected herself. “I just assumed that would still be my position. Now. With you, Mr. Mason.”
Hearing “Mr. Mason” tumble from her tongue sounded odd coming from her when we had both known each other so intimately already.
“Please, call me Jeremiah,” I said, my voice bordering on the edge of friendly.
She nodded in understanding.
“And what exactly did you do for your old boss?” I asked with a slow smirk forming, remembering all the things she had done for me already. I could have sworn her face turned a shade of pink, as if she remembered too.
“Well, let’s see…I managed his calendar, took notes at meetings, ran errands, responded to emails. Really, anything he needed of me, Mr. Mason.”
I shot her a look, a silent reminder of what I preferred her to call me.
“Sorry. Jeremiah, I mean.” She looked up at me through her dark lashes, her voice wary as if she were learning a new word.
Her timidness was beginning to grate my nerves. Normally, I didn’t mind that little bit of intimidation. I was used to it. I liked being in control, but this was just weak. She was back to the same woman I caught in my apartment after I had caught her breaking in. I wondered how she could switch so easily between being fearless, scaling twenty-something stories and stripping down in my living room, to being meek and stammering here before me.
“Look, what happened the other night…” I started, lowering my voice.
She closed her eyes tight in embarrassment before opening them again.
“That is separate from work.Thisis business,” I said, putting my finger firmly on my desk. “Is that understood?”
“Of course,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
“I expect you to manage your responsibilities as my personal assistant, but if you can’t do that because of our…” I paused, treading carefully on what to call it. “Encounter. Then I’ll have to let you go.”
“No,” she said with a firmness that surprised me. “I can do it.”
“Prove it.”
I nodded toward the door to let her know she was dismissed. She got up without pause, eager to get out of my office as if she was in a lion’s lair. I watched the slight swish of her hips as she walked quickly, opening the door, and taking a seat at her desk just mere feet away. It would be easy to keep an eye on her, as she was in direct view of my office. I needed to see if she was really up for the job of being my personal assistant. Most in this position didn’t last long, and my money was on her either giving up or me having to let her go.
Over the next few hours, between firing employees or threatening to fire them, I watched Sadie work. While she remained focused on her tasks of linking my calendar and email accounts to her computer, I also saw that her meekness wasn’t just with me. It was with everyone. She approached everyone timidly, as if she didn’t deserve their time, and she even apologized for taking up mere minutes with them. For someone who had worked here for the past few years, she was painfully shy with her coworkers. I wondered why the hell her old boss had kept her around for so long. Was it because she was eye candy?
I drummed my fingers on my desk as I observed another painfully awkward interaction between her and a junior associate. He had asked her to make copies for him, when that was far from her job description, but she did so without hesitation. I could feel myself growing irritated as I watched him lean against a colleague’s desk to chat while she did something he was more than capable of doing. Maybe she had been keptfor so long because she never asked anything of anyone, but did anything for everyone. She was a pushover.
I shook my head as I watched her return with a stack of copies, handing it over to the junior associate with a small smile. As she turned and walked back to her desk, I watched him discreetly high five his colleague with a shit-eating smirk on his face that I wanted to put my fist into. I could easily fire him. Maybe I would.
Sadie sat back at her desk, furrowing her brow as her eyes scanned her laptop, hard at the work she should be doing. She tucked a red strand of hair behind her pearl-clad ear as she focused. She looked damn delectable. I found myself distracted by the way she chewed on her bottom lip in concentration, wishing I could taste it again. Shit. She was going to be a distraction. One I could easily get used to, but she also had to be good at her job. I hoped she was up for it.
I stood from my chair and strode toward her desk. I knocked on the wooden surface, garnering her attention. She looked up at me curiously.
“Do you want to keep your job?” I asked.
“Y-yes. Of course,” she said, lifting her perfectly arched brows.
“Then stop making copies for that asshole junior associate. Stop apologizing to everyone. And start taking up some goddamn space in this office. I won’t have someone weak working for me. Understood?”
She simply nodded once before I turned on my heel and headed back into my office, calling over my shoulder. “Oh, and send that asshole in here. I see more fat that needs to be trimmed.”
Chapter 7
