I grounded my teeth.
She was right of course. But I couldn’t give up Tess. Besides, I still needed her around to be my fake girlfriend. I had to keep my sisters. But if I fired Tess, what if she got so mad that she just left? She had done that before.
Fuck.
I rubbed my jaw. “I’ll handle it, just give me some time.”
“If you’re concerned about Tess having an irrational reaction,” Cressida said, picking up the binder and closing it with a snap, “I’m happy to take her place. Ethel likes me, and clearly, I could be a great mother to your sisters. What do you say to a little upgrade, hm?”
I gave Cressida a cold look. “Speaking of illegal workplace romances.”
“Obviously, if we started dating, I would resign from my position,” she assured me.
“Cressida,” I said.
She batted her eyes at me.
“Even if Tess buys a one-way ticket to Japan when I tell her she’s going to lose her job, there is no way in hell I’m dating you. You will never be my girlfriend. You will never be my wife. Excuse me for being so blunt, but I do feel the need to make that quite clear. Do you understand? If that’s going to be a problem, then we’ll find a new HR director.”
Cressida’s nostrils flared, and her mouth pressed in a thin line. “Crystal clear,” she said and walked stiffly out of the office.
I leaned back in my chair and pinched the bridge of my nose.
How was it only Monday and yet the week was already shitty? And Tess was still nowhere to be found.
I took the elevator down to the lobby. It was too early for my afternoon tea, but I felt like I needed something to calm down.
Tess would be the perfect way to relax.
I was going to have to fire her. She was going to hate me.
My assistant was sitting at one of the small metal café tables in the lobby by the Sparrow and Thyme Bistro.
Just seeing her made the tension lift from my shoulders. I walked behind her, wrapped an arm around her, and pressed a kiss to her neck.
“Oh shit!” she yelled, jumping up. She accidentally hit the fork that was on the plate of pasta she was eating, and it went flying, spattering her and me with noodles, cheese sauce, and red sausage.
“Oh fuck,” she said, turning around slowly.
“Who else did you think was going around kissing you?” I demanded.
“Dude, we live in Manhattan. There are all sorts of crazy people out there. On the plus side,” she added, standing up, her tongue darting out to lick my cheek. “You are looking extremely tasty today!” She looked down. “Oh no! It’s all over your suit. Guess I shouldn’t have had that third helping.”
“Especially since a lot of it’s on my clothes,” I growled.
“You should have an extra suit here at the office,” Tess told me, “but I need to go home and change.”
“I’ll come too. It wouldn’t be all that gentlemanly to make you go by yourself.”
We walked into the condo.The moment the door was closed, she turned and started unbuttoning her shirt.
The sight sent an immediate zing of excitement down to my cock, and I found that I was starting to get hard. “What are you doing?”
“What, this?” She looked up at me, all false innocence. “I wanted to put my clothes in the wash. You don’t mind, do you?”
I grinned an answer and sat on the couch, my legs spread wide open so she could see my growing bulge. “Please, continue.”
“I like it when a man says please,” Tess murmured as she opened the rest of her blouse to show a lacy bra underneath. I already loved the look of her tits, but there was something delicious about seeing them all perked up in a layer of lace.
