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And for once, I don’t try to talk myself back down to earth with reminders of all the things there are to be afraid of. I stare out the window at the stars fierce enough to be seen above the big city lights and let myself make a wish or two, wondering if Jack might be looking at those same stars right now and doing the same.
CHAPTER 13
Jack
Day 8 Weds 8/8
They say if somethingcango wrong, it probably will.
Never has that old chestnut been more true than today.
The morning started with a slew of technical difficulties during a presentation for a big corporate client, and quickly slid from bad to worse when a major ISP disclosed a global data breach, tanking the Nasdaq. Three of my top guys got waylaid by food poisoning after eating sushi from a place called Captain Bob’s Burgers ’N Boat Trash—not sure how they didn’t see that coming. And the afternoon closed out with a memo from my systems team that we’re due for a tech upgrade next month to the tune of $580,000.
But like its own special brand of pixie dust magic, all of that bad shit swirls right down the drain when Ellie walks into my office an hour after closing bell.
God, she’s stunning. Even in that boxy suit and makeup, she can’t hide the real deal from me. Especially not after last night.
Just thinking about all the things we did in this room has me hard and ready again.
“And to think I used to dread late nights at the office.” I grin and loosen my tie as she closes the door and crosses to my desk. Beneath the cloying fragrance of Axe body wash—yes, my woman takes her role as a finance dude-bro seriously—I smell the sweet, feminine scent that’s all Ellie, and it makes my mouth water. “I missed you like crazy.”
I take her into my arms and claim her mouth in a deep kiss, ignoring the tickle of her mustache on my skin.
“Mmm.” Ellie sighs against my lips. “Keep kissing me like that, and I might start to believe you.”
“If you insist.” I lean in for round two, but Ellie puts her hands on my chest, holding me back. Her eyes twinkle with mischief, and I can’t keep the grin off my face. “You’re killing me, El. You know that, right?”
“I’m trying to be professional, Mr. Holt,” she teases. “Which means first we cover work business, then we get to the naughty business.”
“Work business? But it’s after hours.” I’m not sure I can hold out much longer. My hands are already roaming over her curves, sliding under her perfect ass, pulling her toward my rock-hard cock as I give myself a slow-motion mental preview of all the ways I’m going to make her come…
“Five minutes.” She squirms out of my grip, tossing her suit coat onto the chair behind her. “I have an update on my research, a quick request, and then I’m all yours. Promise.”
“Is the request related to the naughty business?”
She pins me with a no-nonsense look, lips pursed beneath her mustache.
I lift my hands in surrender. “Okay, okay. I’ll behave. What’ve you got for me?”
Ellie perches on the edge of my desk. I sit on my chair in front of her, my hands curled around her hips.
“When it comes to hiring practices and advancement opportunities,” she says, “There’s clear evidence of preferential treatment toward male employees. It took a bit of time to correlate, but now that all the dots are connected, you can’t miss it.”
I nod, impressed with her research skills. For the first time since she started this project, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The day she turns in her story and resigns from her “position” at S&H is the day we can stop sneaking around and—bonus—the blissful day I stop kissing someone with an intensely tickly mustache. “I’ll take your findings to Ryan and Blair, and we can start implementing some changes.”
“That’s the idea. But…” Ellie exhales with a weary shake of her head. “I’m barely scraping the surface, Jack.”
“Hey.” I stand, brushing the man-bangs from her eyes. “You’re kicking ass. If you need more data, we’ll just have to dig deeper. Right?”
She smiles softly. “Thanks for the ‘we’ part.”
“You know I’m all in. So where do we go from here?”
“I have anecdotes from some of the women in the office, but some of these issues are hard to quantify.”
“How so?”
“It’s not a problem unique to S and H,” she says, her voice darkening. “The truth is women are penalized for our biology and our gender roles in almost every facet of life. All the scientific research and the studies I’ve been reading…it’s all so deeply depressing. And if you’re a woman of color or an older woman, the roadblocks are even bigger.”
