“No.”
“You’re annoying!”
“Yes.” He chuckled. “You’ll just have to get used to it.”
“Why?” she asked cautiously.
His lips tugged up slowly into a huge grin. “Because your father has decided to take us in until our house is fixed.”
“W-What?” she asked, unable to hide her surprise.
“Looks like we’ll be sharing an office,” Robert said with a wink before he pointedly looked down at his papers. “Now, if you don’t mind, I have work to do,” he said, watching her out of the corner of his eye.
She rolled her eyes as she turned to face Gregory, giving him a rather nice view of her backside. He had trouble swallowing. He remembered all too well how that particular part of her body felt in his hands. Did she know what she was doing to him?
“You, sir, have my deepest sympathies,” she said to Gregory.
“F-For what, my lady?” Gregory nervously asked. The man always had problems talking to women, even his own wife. A beautiful woman would damn near kill the man. Robert pitied the man, for surely any attention from his minx would send Gregory to an early grave.
“For being saddled with the likes of this man.”
Gregory swallowed loudly, not sure how to respond. He didn’t want to upset Elizabeth, but he definitely did not want to offend his employer. “Mr. Bradford is an excellent employer, my Lady.”
Elizabeth looked over her shoulder at Robert with a hint of mischief in her eyes. What was she about? he wondered as she turned back to face Gregory and gave him another view of that beautiful bottom that he desperately wanted to touch again.
“What is your name, sir?”
“Mr. Gregory Jenkins, my Lady.”
She nodded and smiled as though the name pleased her. “Mr. Jenkins, I find myself in need of a man in your position. What do you say to coming to work for me for, let’s say, an additional two pounds a month?”
Robert jumped to his feet. Trying to steal away a good employee was considered rude, but to do it in front of the current employer was a slap in the face. “What the hell?” Robert snapped, not caring that he was swearing in a woman’s presence or that Gregory was leaving his service in a matter of weeks anyway.
Gregory looked nervously between the two of them. “M-My Lady, I…”
“Five additional pounds a month. I assure you, sir, this is a real offer.”
“But you know nothing of me, my Lady,” Gregory said, shifting nervously.
“Ten pounds,” Elizabeth said without batting an eye.
Robert stepped in front of her. He knew with an offer like that, Gregory would have to be a fool to refuse, especially since he had a child on the way. Gregory looked at him pleadingly. He didn’t know what to do, but Robert saw that he was tempted. Damn it, he was not about to lose the best employee he’d ever had to her.
“I’ll match the offer,” Robert said, giving Gregory a meaningful look to let him know that he’d make sure that his father, who he was pretty sure would hire Gregory, would match the offer once he left for America. Ah, hell, the man was worth it. He’d already planned on giving him a good size raise soon anyway because of the baby.
“I’ll give you that plus one week off a year with pay,” Elizabeth said in a bored tone.
“I’ll match that and add a week,” Robert said almost desperately. He was not going to lose, damn it! Gregory’s face reddened. “But you have to agree right now not to leave my service and especially not to her.”
“I accept, sir. Thank you, sir,” Gregory said, struggling not to smile.
“Good. Then, there will be no more of this nonsense.”
“No, sir.”
“Good,” Robert said rather smugly as he turned around to rub it in Elizabeth’s face, but she was no longer standing behind him.
She was sitting in his chair with a smug smile of her own. “Looks like I just got my chair back,” she said with a grin, shooting Gregory a wink.
