He’s too busy grabbing our coats to notice my sharpened attention.
“An audit?” I grin, about to tell him that’s the business I’m in, when his face twists into a scowl.
“It’s such bullshit. It’s only a draft at this point, but the auditor’s demanding companywide responses by the end of the week, so we’re scrambling to point out what a hatchet job it is for my unit.”
The sounds around us cut out. “Is the audit being done by a local firm?” I ask hesitantly.
He makes a visible effort to squash his irritation. “I wish. It’s some out-of-town group that our CEO brought in as cover so he can do whatever he’s going to do regardless.” A muscle in his jaw bunches. “Fucking ghouls. Money over people every time with them.”
No. No no no.
He holds out his hand again, but I’m locked in place by an awful, dawning premonition.
“Sounder Benefits Management,” I say, and the tiny spark of hope that he won’t know what I mean shatters when his expression twists into shock.
“I….” Now he’s the one standing frozen. “Fuck. You’re not?—”
“The bullshit consultant who drafted a proposal to double your company’s profits by trimming the bloat and reinvesting the savings into the Retirement Products Group?” I yank my coat out of his hands, my heart pounding as I watch him recoil. “Yeah. I am.”
“Charlotte Jane Parrish. The name on the report.” It’s almost like he’s talking to himself, but he immediately focuses back on me. “The one who wants to gut the Financial Wellness Division.”
“You mean the division that replicates what every HR department in the country is already doing? The one with the terrible ROI? That division?”
“That’s right. The division you didn’t bother learning anything about.” His handsome face twists, and my heart twists right along with it. “So fucking lazy.”
“Lazy?” Rage starts to build behind my breastbone. “I’m lazy? I tried to meet with your so-very-important division, but you guys declined a meeting because you’re so behind on your year-end paperwork that you couldn’t take the time to do it. If I’m lazy, you guys are incompetent.”
“What? Who told you that?”
“Your CEO. Maybe you’ve heard of him? Howard Randall? He’s that nice man who signs your paychecks and hired my company to make sure he can keep signing your paychecks well into the future.”
My lips are numb as the last words tumble out. But if I’m ice, Wyatt’s pure fire.
“Not the paychecks of forty percent of my team, if you have your way.” His gaze burns into mine. “You don’t care about that, though, do you? Or the way it’ll hurt our clients.”
Mortifying tears fill my eyes. “You really think I don’t care what happens to the people my recommendations affect? How can you…” I blink, then blink again until Wyatt’s no longer blurry. “Just because I have a job to do doesn’t mean I don’t fucking care.”
His jaw hardens, bunches, and I can’t believe that not even three minutes ago, I was dreaming about sucking on the skin there while he fucked me into his headboard. The image pours pain onto the insults he’s dumped on me.
“I know you don’t care.” Acid drips from his voice, and that, thank god, chips away the ice chilling my blood. “My division runs educational programs for blue-collar workers who want help picking the best retirement funds. We’re crucial to the company mission.”
“We’re crucial to the company mission,” I mimic in an exaggerated growly voice, aware as I do it that my temper’s galloping away from me. “That’s what every middle manager defending his cushy, overstaffed workforce says. But the numbers don’t lie, Wyatt. Your division’s expensive as fuck, and your training sessions can be done just as well through online training modules and AI.”
“AI?” he explodes. “Fucking seriously?” I thought he was somber before, but that’s nothing compared to the glowering wall of fury towering over me now.
“We talked about this twenty minutes ago! I hate AI as much as you do!” I yell back. “But your boss wants recommendations on those kinds of cost savings, and my boss wants to keep your boss happy.”
Somebody needs to pull this back if we want to salvage the evening, and based on how he’s snarling, that somebody’s going to have to be me. I inhale, my shoulders lifting and falling as I blow out a breath and offer him the best smile I can muster.
“Come on, you understand how audits like these work,” I say in the cajoling tone that works with annoyed interns and C-suite tyrants alike. “Let’s take a beat and go to your place. We can talk through where the disconnects are coming from and try to?—”
“You’ve got to be kidding.” He laughs in disbelief. “You’re that desperate to get laid? You think I’d take you to my place after this?”
“I… I wasn’t thinking we’d…” My cheeks heat. I’m used to getting dismissed or talked over by men at the companies I’m auditing and in my own office too, but I never saw it coming from Wyatt, who’s looking at me with so much contempt that I’m not sure why my skin isn’t boiling off my bones. “I’m not talking about sex. I want to try to work through this.”
He jerks back when I reach for his hand.
“Work through what? Your shitty, shortsighted recommendations?” The skin around his eyes tightens. “It’s all about the money, the money, the money, huh?”
