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Tallah opened her mouth and made a sound that was mean to be “Yes” but was drowned out when he spoke over her.
“My 9 o’clock is your next priority. I need all of my paperwork in preparation so that I can go over it. That you will email to me no later than 8:30. Paperwork for my 9 o’clock. Coffee. Should you have to choose between the two…”
“Choose the coffee.”
“Correct,” he said with a slight narrowing of the eyes. “Remember that and you’ll survive the day. The rest we’ll figure out as we go.”
“I have a question, sir. You say to email you your paperwork no later than 8:30, but you had just finished saying not to disturb you until after 8:30.”
“I didn’t hear a question in any of that.”
Tallah took a breath through her nose in an attempt to squash her frustration. In all her life she’d never tolerated being spoken to in such a way, and she was having a real hard time dealing with it now.
“Let me answer your lack of a question with a question,” he said during her period of self-calming. “How much noise does your email make?”
The condescending tone was nearly enough to make her quit there on the spot. “Understood,” she managed in a strained tone.
Checking his watch, he said, “It’s now 8:35. A poor start. Let’s see how your career looks by 9 o’clock.”
The HR woman turned and walked from the room without a word.
“I look forward to working together,” Tallah said with completely false professionalism.
“I’m sure,” he said.
As she turned and walked through the large, brightly lit office, she became filled with a deep sense of dread at her future here. She suddenly doubted she could make it a full year working under him.
Justin sat at his desk after they’d left and released a long, slow breath. He placed his hands on his desk and watch them as they shook. His hands were actually shaking. The palms were sweaty even after he rubbed them on the front of his pant legs.
Who was this woman? In all his life, he’d never been more aware of anyone. She woke something inside of him. It was a sensation he felt instantly, and had no idea how to translate it. Was this what it meant to be truly attracted to someone? With everything occupying his day to day, he let his HR departments handle all of the hiring. If a particular department needed input, that specific manager could do a follow-up. All Justin needed was an assistant. How hard of a position could that possibly be to fill? Paperwork, phone calls, coffee. He’d every intention of making it easy on whoever they did decide to hire.
When he turned around and saw the most perfect representation of beauty and grace standing right in front of him, his options were to melt into a finely dressed puddle, or, well, respond aggressively. What other choice did he have? He couldn’t have flirted with her, certainly not in front of HR. Justin slapped himself across the face and laid his hands flat on the desk.
Flirt? What was wrong with him? Even if HR isn’t there, he can’t flirt. He’s engaged, for God’s sakes! If he wasn’t careful and she realized how he felt, it could ruin his entire life. This was his assistant, and now that she was already hired, he couldn’t fire her unless she did something wrong.
The only choice left to him was to continue to play the rude overbearing boss. Best case scenario, she quits and he never has to see her again. Which, admittedly, would be incredibly depressing, but out of sight out of mind. If she was gone, at least he’d be able to move on with his life. Worst case scenario, she stays, and hates him. A woman that stole his breath away would hate him. He’d never wanted anyone more in his life. The thought of her looking at him with disdain depressed him more than the thought of her walking out of his life forever. These were terrible thoughts. Justin squeezed his eyes closed and lowered his head. Seconds meeting this woman, and already he was running the emotional gamut. Not a good sign. Not a good sign at all.
Suddenly his entire relationship with his fiancé was called into question in his mind. After years with this woman, was it all so easily washed away just because a pretty woman had walked into his office? No. No, of course not. He’d had pretty women come into his office before. Officials, delivery people, other people’s assistants. He’d been around plenty of beautiful women in his day. What was this? What was he going on about? He was acting like he was back in college. Justin straightened himself up from his chair and smoothed the wrinkles out of the front.
This was ridiculous. He needed to pull himself together. His office door opened, and she walked in again holding his coffee. Damn that coffee. He made a point of facing his computer while watching her walk out of the corner of his eye. The sway of her hips, the expert placement of one foot in front of the other. This woman was grace.
Heat rose up from his neck, burning his cheeks as he became acutely aware of how much closer she drew with every step. As she moved to put the coffee down, he shouted wordlessly at her. She jolted and stood up straight.
“This desk,” he said sharply, all of his arousal and heat redirected as useless anger, “is worth more than what I would be paying you in a year, if you last that long. You don’t just put down a coffee so hot it could warp the wood. It goes here.”
He pointed to a round wooden coaster cut from a limb of the same tree the desk itself was made from. It was a stupid style thing, but it made him smile. Tallah bowed her head slightly as she set the coffee down on the coaster. Coasters. He used coasters now, apparently. “Yes?” he asked and looked up at her. The smooth lines of her face, the sharp corners of her eyes. She was simply breathtaking. The sort of beauty gods grew jealous over. “Did you need something else?” he added sharply.
“If that will be all, Mr. Gilmore,” she said and walked from his desk before he could answer.
He picked up his coffee and took a sip as he watched her walk away. She was even more exquisite from behind. Justin breathed deeply of the scent of his coffee and wondered how long he would be able to keep this up. It didn’t matter, really. He didn’t have a choice. He got a good look at her legs as she positioned herself to open the office door.
The moment it clicked shut, he sighed. “It’s going to be a long day.”
Weeks passed. Every day was worse than the last. Either that, or it just grated on her patience and made it seem that way. He was unbelievably rude. She understood that this was his company, he owned the building, and essentially the people that worked for him, but for her that didn’t give him the right to treat people any way he wanted. If this had been any other job, any other boss, she would’ve told him off to his face and walked out. Unfortunately that wasn’t an option. She had bills that demanded she stay right where she was. Just like staying here for a year would open all new doors for her, quitting inside of a year — or, hell, a month — would slam those doors shut forever. What kind of an employee would she be if she did such a thing?
There were people that would kill to be where she was, fetching this ass of a man his coffee and answering his calls. It was such a simple job, really, but he made it nearly impossible. Every time they spoke, he treated her as some kind of second-class citizen, but then he would demand her time far more than was needed. If she didn’t know any better, it was as though he was calling her into his office just so he could yell at her to her face. Most of the things he found “wrong” weren’t wrong at all, or sometimes he would call her in to yell at her about something she’d had nothing to do with.
Did he want it fixed? Nope! He just wanted to rant and rave, and then he would sit there, silent, staring fixedly on her eyes until she said something.
