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Oh, she wanted to eviscerate him until he was nothing but a pile of ash. Instead, she turned around and slammed the door on her way out.
* * *
Dane pacedhis office after he walked away from the file room. He almost kissed his secretary. His beautiful, demanding, spunky secretary. He never had sexual relations with another employee, an employee who worked with him day in and day out. He never had the want, the need, the burning desire to have sex with his secretary. Untilshewalked in.
“Stupid. Stupid, Dane. Keep your hands to yourself.”
For a brief moment, he thought she wanted him to kiss her. Of course, not when she retreated, a small cringe tingeing her face as she backed into the file drawer. But when she said, “I’m waiting.” He swore she meant she was waiting for him to make his move. What an idiotic thought because that wasn’t what she meant.
He had needed to flee the room with a passion, to get his bearings back down. Then she called his name. He rushed to her like a lovesick puppy. And all she wanted was the file dangling from his hand. Not him. Not the man in front of her. And why would she? He was her boss. Her demanding, arrogant boss. That was all.
He needed to remember that. He couldn’t lose focus on what was important. His work was important. Not some woman who made his heart feel things that he hadn’t ever felt in his life.
He dated women. Lots of different types of women. Not as often in the last few years as work consumed his time more than anything. But he wasn’t a stranger to the opposite sex. He was a man. He had needs. But when he thought of all those other women, they failed in comparison to her. He knew that even only knowing her less than a week.
He had a serious problem. He couldn’t fire her. He had no solid reason, other than the raging hard-on he experienced most of the workday. That wasn’t good enough. And he couldn’t fire her because he’d miss seeing her face, even if it were for the day. He ached to see her out of the work element, out in the real world. Out on a date. What would that be like?
Spectacular.
She could only be described in one word. The best word. She would make the date spectacular.
Shit. He couldn’t fire her. He couldn’t ask her out on a date while she was his secretary. That put him in a very serious predicament. And burning a hole in his floor as he paced back and forth wasn’t helping him come up with any brilliant ideas. Damn it. He should be working, not contemplating ways to get into his secretary’s pants.
He would simply have to suffer. He didn’t want to risk losing her by firing her. Because there were no guarantees, she would accept a date from him if he let her go. And he couldn’t date her while she was employed by him. He was screwed either way.
He sat down behind his desk, resting his hands on his head as he thought about his future misery. He knew he should mentally prepare himself for the meeting he was about to conduct, but he couldn’t. She wouldn’t leave his thoughts—a natural occurrence since the day he hired her.
He somehow managed to divert his thoughts for the moment when the phone rang, and he started his meeting. He almost dropped the phone when his door busted open, and the woman of his day—and nightly—dreams stormed inside his office.
Whoa.
With a level of anger he had never witnessed before.
He did something he had never done in his life. He ended the call without one word goodbye.
He stood up. “Ms. Stileano, what’s the matter?”
“What’s the matter? What’s the matter, you ask? What is your damn name?” she yelled, her face coloring into a deep red.
“My name? It’s Holloway.”
“Don’t jerk me around. Your first name.”
Okay. He had to tread carefully here. He wasn’t quite sure why she was so upset, but she wasn’t about to tell him until she had her questions answered.
“Dane. My name is Dane Holloway. Your full name is Gabriella Stileano. Are we good now? Can you tell me what has you so upset?”
“Dane. Your first name is Dane. There are two Mr. Holloways here. You have a brother. I solved my mystery within seconds of meeting Mr. Holloway number two. An entire week…” She pierced her lips as her voice trailed off, and she shook her head.
Dane walked around his desk as if he were approaching a frightened animal. “You’ve lost me. What’s going on? I just hung up on Mr. Gordon. You know how important that meeting was. I deserve an explanation here.”
She met his eyes square-on. “Your brother is disgusting. Despicable. A downright sleazy scumbag.”
“While I would agree with that, I’m not sure why you think so.”
“His secretary wasn’t at her desk. The door was ajar. I pushed it the rest of the way open without knocking. My bad. Very, very bad. I may need to wash my eyes out with chemicals to remove the nasty scene I witnessed. He was screwing his secretary on his desk. Some blonde chick. Definitely wasn’t Mia.”
She turned around, still distressed. He wanted to be surprised by his brother’s behavior. But he wasn’t. That was Champ to the T. He thought life was a joke. That everything came easy and handed to him with ease. Which wasn’t completely off when he thought about it.
