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Craig leaned against the counter and casually popped the top. “I don’t think so, buddy. She was more than willing to flirt and talk to me until she saw you.” He smiled like the cat that got the canary as he lifted the can to his mouth and took a large pull of the drink.
David clenched his teeth and scowled at the smug look on his lawyer’s face and said, “Find out who she is. I want the file on her this afternoon.”
“You thinking what I think you’re thinking?”
“Maybe. I don’t know, but I want to know more about her.”
“Did you see her, man? What more do you need to know?”
David’s features hardened as he gave the other man a menacing stare. “Just get me the damn file.”
Chapter Two
At four o’clock, David sat alone in his office and couldn’t believe he was contemplating this. Jenna Marie Hardin’s file sat closed in front of him. He had studied it long enough to get the picture. Twenty-five years old, single and a high school graduate, she had flitted from one job to the next until she had landed here six months ago. The job she currently held in accounts receivables was obviously a big score for her, and she probably didn’t want anything to threaten that security.
What could he offer to get her to agree? Money, no doubt, was the answer. Money and a short-term marriage.
His hand reached out as he flipped the folder open again. Her pleasant face and hesitant smile popped up from the picture that was snapped the day she had been hired. It was a quietly pretty face, and it had been fucking with his libido and equilibrium for months. Even though he had intimated to Craig that he didn’t know who she was, that was pure bullshit. He had noticed her months ago, and if she hadn’t been an employee, he’d have been all over her shit.
She was that fucking hot.
Once again his cock swelled from the sight of her as he studied the picture.
She wasn’t overtly beautiful. Or beautiful at all, for that matter. She had a gentle appearance, a calming countenance with bright eyes and sweet, dimpled cheeks. Until you noticed her lips. Her lips were soft and full and they licked a trace of fire through his insides. Those lips gave her an earthy sexiness that was far more dangerous to his state of mind than mere beauty would have been. Her hair was thick and a light, golden brown and fell softly around her shoulders. It was that hair he had noticed the first time he saw her. It was silky and smooth and he imagined his hands sinking into it as those lips enclosed him. It was the number one fantasy that dominated his brain recently. It fucked with him incessantly.
He had never hit on an employee before, knew he couldn’t hit on her and the temptation had been quietly driving him insane for the last six months. Every time she caught him looking at her, panic clouded her features. And that made his situation worse. It underlined the fact that he couldn’t make a single move on her. He had watched her for six months and waited. He had bided his time because he had no choice, and waited for an opening, any opening, and he’d be damned if he’d let this slip by him now. The teasing quip she had thrown out in the break room was the crack he needed.
He tried to justify his actions for the extreme maneuver he was prepared to take. What Craig said made sense, and his first responsibility lay with this company. He would do whatever he had to do to make sure it succeeded. If that meant letting someone else have the presidency, he would do it. Or, as in this case, if it meant forming a business partnership he never anticipated with a woman he didn’t know, to make sure he acceded to the presidency, he would do that, too. After all, it wouldn’t be forever. A short term marriage was what he needed both for the job and for the relationship with her to run its course.
He vaguely thought about considering other women, but quickly shot the idea down. An uneasy feeling traced down his spine. He knew that if it wasn’t for her, he wouldn’t even be considering the ludicrous idea of marriage. His intelligence was above average. He could undoubtedly figure out a different way to solve the problem. No, considering another woman wasn’t even an option.
At thirty-five, he’d never come remotely close to meeting a woman that threatened his single status. While he didn’t have anything against marriage per se, he had never before met a woman that he couldn’t do without.
His uncle was set to retire and step down in three months. David had to have all his cards in a row by then. If he was going to go through with this, he needed to get the ball rolling. The sooner the marriage, the better.
He studied the picture in front of him and waited for his common sense to rebel. All he felt was a slow sizzle deep in his gut and an intense satisfaction at the thought of finally parting her thighs and sliding inside.
****
Jenna was at her desk the next morning fully engrossed with her work when she felt an ever familiar heat in her veins. She slowly glanced up from her computer screen and looked toward the bank of elevators, expecting to see him making his way toward them. He wasn’t there. Confused that her heightened senses had let her down, her eyes scanned the room.
She saw him immediately.
He was standing at the end of mahogany row, arms crossed and surveying the accounting department with a shuttered look on his face.
The accounting department or just her? No doubt about it, his dark gaze was riveted on her. She sucked in a breath as his eyes tangled with hers. Alarm jolted through her system, as she quickly looked away, trying to concentrate on the screen in front of her.
This was new. He’d never just stopped what he was doing to come stare at her this way. And there was no doubt about it, he was staring at her. Her fingers quivered as they moved over the keyboard, the image of him standing and observing her in silence fixed in her head.
The trembling in her fingers intensified until she couldn’t stand it anymore and looked up again.
She let out a pent-up breath. He was gone.
****
At two o’clock her phone rang. She picked it up, and was shocked to realize it was a bill
collector calling her at work. Mortification spread through her, and she lowered her voice and tried to sound stern. “You can’t call me at w-work. I know my rights. Don’t call back here, Mister.”
She gently hung up the phone as apprehension spread through her. Her situation was getting worse.
****
At eleven o’clock the next morning, Jenna’s extension rang. That phone rarely rang, as all her work correspondence was done through email. And now it had rung two days in a row. She had no protocol for answering it and worried it was the bill collector again. She looked around and hoped no one could overhear her.
She picked it up and stated her name. “Jenna Hardin.”
“Miss Hardin?” a smooth, female voice questioned.
“This is she.” Jenna could be smooth also. Maybe the collectors were trying something different, having a woman call her this time instead of a man. She stiffened her shoulders and prepared for the verbal attack she was going to give back.
“This is Pam in Mr. Bennett’s office. Mr. David Bennett. He’d like to see you for a minute if you can spare the time.”
Fear and confusion hit Jenna. That name. David Bennett. It was starting to scare the crap out of her. It never had before. It had made her uneasy, sure. How could it not, when his dark, intent stare somehow always managed to find her? But his name had never scared the crap out of her before. But then again, she never had bill collectors calling her at work. And she had never thrown out a flirty little smile and teased that she wanted to be his wife. Her insides clenched at the thought. No doubt about it, she needed to learn how to rein in her freaking mouth before it got her in serious trouble.
An arrow of fear slid down her spine when she thought about them finding out she had bill collectors on her butt. The worst place an employee with financial problems could work was in accounting. It just wasn’t conducive to good business. She knew that. That was basic business procedure.
But it really didn’t make sense that this would be about her collection troubles. David Bennett was too high up and important to handle a matter as small as this would be in the scheme of things. No doubt about it, he was the man in charge, even though her checks were stamped with the name Charles Bennett. Someone else from human resources should be doing the dirty work.
