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“That won’t be necessary, thank you, Marina,” I cut in calmly, lifting a hand.
Marina’s frazzled brow smoothed out, replaced by confusion. “Miss Jo- uh, Hayden, do you know this woman?”
“Fortunately, yes,” I hummed, letting my gaze rake down the length of Frankie’s body and back up. Slowly, deliberately. “A pleasant surprise, so would you grab us some drinks, please?”
“Right away,” Marina said and quickly disappeared the way she came, no doubt sensing the tension layered in the room.
“Well,” I said, leaning back in my chair. I waved a hand at the open seat in front of my desk with a smirk. “Make yourself at home, Frankie. I’m sure we have a lot to discuss.”
“Weare not going to discuss anything.” She seethed, her shoulders rising and falling with the force of her breaths. “I have something to say to you.”
“Before you do, and let me assure you I’m thoroughly intrigued by you coming all the way to my office just to yell at me,” I crooned, letting the charm I’d weaponized soften my words. “How did you get all the way up here without security dragging you kicking and screaming back to the lobby?”
She blinked at me, once, twice. “What do you mean?” she asked, confusion bright in her eyes.
“I mean that no one gets up here without an appointment and a rigorous pat down by security,” I explained, threading my fingers together. “So how did you get by?”
“I-it doesn’t matter,” she stammered, color staining her cheeks and giving her away. “It's not like it was hard.”
“No, Frankie,” I countered, and her startled eyes met mine. I smirked and stood up, hands braced on the desk. “It matters. Because as much as I’m enjoying you here, I need to make sure no one else gets up here the same way.”
“I just walked past,” she said irritably, and even though I knew she was lying, I let it go. But I noticed how her eyes drank me in, how they roved over the cut of my suit and the drop of my blouse. How she swallowed nervously.
“All right.” I chuckled. “I can take a hint. How was your day?”
She opened her mouth to retort but shut it just as quickly, glaring at me. “I’m here to talk about what you’re doing to the store and you ask how my day was?” she asked dispassionately, her freckles almost invisible under the dark red staining her cheeks.
“Yeah, that’s usually how you talk to another human being,” I explained, walking around my desk and toward her, each step calculated. I watched her catalog each one. “You barge into my office while I’m busy working and I ask how your day was. It’s called reading a room.”
“Reading a room would be seeing how mad I am and realizing how stupid that question is,” she spat.
“I didn’t say I was any good at it.” I chuckled darkly, taking one final step closer. I stood in front of her, my nose inches from hers as I leaned down just a little. “Maybe you can help me tell the difference.”
I heard the sharp little intake of breath that whooshed past her teeth and saw the flush in her cheeks darken.
So Ididhave an effect. Interesting. I’d worried that Frankie was immune to the persona I used to get my way. In business and… elsewhere.
She glared up at me and I pulled away, walking back to my desk and taking a seat.
“So much for professionalism,” she muttered, more to herself than me but I heard it all the same.
I laughed aloud, and took her stance in. She wore utility pants, the many pockets stained with what looked like paint. I supposed it was artistic. Her sneakers were black, with painted sunflowers on them and her band tee was knotted at her waist, revealing a slip of skin.
She looked stunning anyway, though the depraved part of my brain whispered a different word:delicious.
“Okay, then to what do I owe the pleasure?”
Her hands curled into fists at her sides, her shoulders bunching up with anger. “You rolled out changes that I didn’t even know were a possibility, let alone being implemented so soon,” she ground out. “I walk into the store today and suddenly Dean and Blanca are working on the new nutrition program that I wasn’t even consulted on.”
“But you were aware that I’d taken a keen interest in that particular program, yes?” It took all of my experience in the corporate world to keep my expression relaxed and unfazed. Truth be told, I found Frankie’s fury…
Sexy.
But that wouldn’t help the matter at hand, and this was strictly business.
“And I told you that we struggled with resources,” she argued, turning to pace up and down in front of my desk. “Not just financially, but staff-wise as well. We need both Dean and Blanca working on the floor to help customers, and they can’t do that when they’re trying to craft detailed nutrition programs.”
“Fair,” I agreed, frowning in concession. “However, when I looked at your revenue for the last quarter, the turnover suggested that there was room to experiment with sales tactics as well as product offerings. We have room to improve, room to grow the store into something bigger and better.”
