Page 31 of Mr. Perfect

“Proprietary clause?” Shit. I never even thought about that.

“But, as I said, good news. I pulled your contract,” he says, smiling down at the file on his desk. “Quite a lot of information in here. Lots of things I really didn’t want to look up, Miss Hatcher.”

“You read my employment file?” I ask, stunned. “That’s private.”

“Do you want to publish that book or not?”

“Yes, but that doesn’t give you the right—”

“To make sure this company doesn’t sue you? Nice repayment for my efforts, Eloise.”

“Well, McAllister, I just think it’s a little bit invasive for you to be pawing through my file.”

“But pawing my way up your dress is fine?” He cracks a smile at his joke.

“That’s inappropriate too. In fact, pretty much everything I’ve learned about you since you came here yesterday has been inappropriate. Did you know that Ellen Interoffice-sexcapades is telling everyone she caught us having a tryst in the stairs yesterday?”

McAllister frowns. “No. I’ve been out of the office all day. Just got back about an hour ago, and then I had to go down to human resources for this and talk to the lawyers. What is she saying?”

“Just telling people. Ming knew about it. I’m so fucking humiliated. Again. And it’s all because of you.”

“Ah, fuck her. She’s just jealous.”

“Ha!” I practically scream. “I cannot believe you just said that. She’s jealous of what?”

“That I like you instead of her.”

“What?” I have to take a deep breath as I roll my eyes. “Is this some kind of contest for you? A conquest? A fucking—”

“Hey,” he says, standing up and coming around to my side of the desk. “Just calm down. I’ll deal with her. But right now I want to deal with you.”

“Deal with me?” I can’t.

“Don’t be so uptight, Eloise. I have something to show you and you’re sucking all the fun out of it.”

“Well, you… you…” I have nothing that doesn’t involve the words ‘bastard,’ ‘asshole,’ and ‘prick.’

“Fun-sucker,” he says, smiling.

“I’m not a fun-sucker. For your information, I’m a lot of fun.”

“I already know that, Ellie. Preaching to the choir here. Now keep quiet and be appreciative.”

I slap him. I swear to God, I have no idea what comes over me, but my hand just flies up, hits his cheek, and makes this epic smack that hangs in the air as everything else goes silent.

He palms the red mark I made, and then smiles. “You’re not going to ruin this for me. No matter how hard you try.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I—”

But he takes my hand and starts pulling me towards the door connecting to my office.

Jesus, I might get lucky after all. I don’t even have to find a reason to get him in there. I reach into my pocket, ready to press send and let Ming loose on his ass.

Chapter Thirteen - Mac

“Come on,” I say, leading her over to the door. “Go ahead, open it.”

“Why?” Ellie asks suspiciously. “What’s in there? A lawyer? Are we going to have to fight out the details of this book? Because it’s none of your damn—”