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I watched her closely, waiting to see her reaction as I switched up the assignments on her. I expected her to tell me that there was no way that she could help me and get her work done at the same time, but she said nothing. Instead, she grabbed the files that she had been working on and followed me back into my office.
“Have a seat.” Annie sat without much argument. It was difficult to keep the smile off of my face. Annie was a listener, which I liked. It boded well for the future. I wasn’t a Dom by any stretch of the imagination. I liked my women to be active participants in our sex, but I wasn’t interested in someone I needed to fight at every turn.
“I have to admit that I’ve never worked on a deposition before.” Annie’s eyes were wide like a deer in the headlights. “I’m not sure how much help I will be.”
“You’ll be fine.” I wasn’t interested in her work skills. This was a test. I wasn’t stupid. I couldn’t just come out and blackmail Annie to help me. I needed to set this up correctly. Grabbing a notebook, I dropped it in front of her. “All I need you to do is take notes.”
Annie sighed, but she grabbed the notebook. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to do this and get the files done in time.”
My brow rose. “Is there a reason you don’t want to work with me?”
I would have laughed had it not been inappropriate. Annie’s mouth dropped open, and her eyes went comically wide. “I–I.”
It was clear that she didn’t expect me to call her out, and if I was more polite, I wouldn’t have. I would have tried to make her comfortable and secure. But I wasn’t a nice man. I wanted her on edge. People were easier to control when they were scared. You could push them a little bit further when they were worried about being back into a corner.
I just needed to push strategically. “Is there a reason that you don’t want to work with me?” I needed to know why Annie tensed whenever I was near. It would help me to formulate the remainder of my plan because as Marcel had reminded me, time was ticking.
A soft blush crept up Annie’s face, and I knew that I’d been accurate in my assessment. She didn’t want to work with me. Odd, considering we hadn’t met before she spilled coffee on me.
“Did Maggie say something about me?” Maggie hated me. She thought that I spent all of my time bedding my female paralegals and secretaries. In reality, I liked to help people better themselves. A lot of times, they left my office to go on to better things.
Annie shook her head. Her dishwater-colored hair, which didn’t fit her coloring, shook around her face. “Maggie didn’t say a thing,” she told me, vehemently.
“I don’t believe you.” Her mouth opened to refute me, but I held up a hand. “It’s well known that Maggie hates me. Not sure why since I’ve been nothing but kind to her.”
Annie’s eyes softened at my words. Not intentionally, but my words were tugging at her heart just as I wanted. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.
I had to look down to stop the smile from spreading across my face. This might be easier than I thought. “Anyway,” I said, shuffling papers around, pretending to be distracted. “Let’s jump right in. As you can see, I’m short staffed, and we’ve got a lot of work to get done.”
Annie said nothing as she pressed her pen to the notepad. Her large, blue eyes were looking up at me as she awaited my instructions, and I couldn’t help but wonder what that would look like in bed.
“Let’s get started,” Annie said.
“Let’s.”
This was going to be fun.
CHAPTERSEVEN
I stifled a yawn as I continued transcribing the notes that Ezra was throwing at me. He spoke so fast, that the first few hours we’d been at this, I’d struggled to get the notes down accurately.
By the time lunch rolled around, we’d gotten into a groove. We’d eaten quickly before getting back into it.
“Well,” Ezra said, as he came to the last bit of evidence that I needed to make sure that I wrote down. “Looks like we are done.”
I smiled as I looked up at him. “We still have at least three case files to get through,” I said, looking over at the files that were on Ezra’s desk. He hadn’t been kidding when he said that they were short staffed and behind on work. Some of these notes were from a month ago, and their cases were coming up. It said a lot about Ezra that he was able to prep so close to a court’s date and win.
He looked at his watch. “It’s after five, you are off the clock.”
I reached across the desk and grabbed one of the files. “I don’t mind.” I didn’t. I enjoyed the work. It kept my mind busy. These days if I wasn’t able to exhaust myself, I wasn’t getting any sleep.
Looking at Ezra, I realized that that was not likely the case for him. “I’m sorry,” I said, before dropping back into my seat. “I’m sure that you have better things to do than sit in your office prepping for cases.”
He chuckled slightly. “This is my job, after all.” He gave me an easy smile. After spending the day in his office, I was beginning to realize that Ezra wasn’t actually that bad. Sure, he had a reputation as a playboy, but when it came to work, he took it seriously. He’d had me transcribe his notes from depositions and evidence in order to prep for his court cases. They’d been interesting and compelling. He had a gift—no matter how small the loophole, he would find it.
“But it’s alright” he’s words interrupted my thoughts, “I’m sure that you have someone you need to get home to.”
His blue eyes met mine, and I felt a tingle run down my spine and a blush starting to heat my cheeks. I moved a piece of hair behind my ear. It was a nervous habit that my nanny had tried everything to do to break, but she hadn’t been able to until no matter how much she smacked my hands and threatened to chop off my hair.
