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He quirks a brow. “Are you trying to talk me out of hiring you?”
It would be the sane thing to do.
“Not at all. I’m just being upfront with you,” I say, uncertain if I meant the double meaning in that sentence or not.
He either doesn’t pick up on it, or he chooses to ignore it. “A bachelor’s is preferred but not required. And I like that you don’t have a lot of experience. I prefer things are done a certain way, so I don’t mind training you.” Something about that statement makes him visibly gulp. “Besides,” he says, setting my resume back on the desk, “your previous boss sang your praises.”
“Probably because I fucked him, to which he repaid me by asking for my resignation.”
Cash holds my gaze, his eyes brimming with smoldering ash. “Do you always talk about your sex life during job interviews?”
“Nope. This is a first.”
“Your old boss sounds like an ass. I hope you handed him his.”
This interview is an epic fail, a mockery of professionalism. But we tossed propriety out the window the instant I walked through the door.
“He was a mistake.” My lungs seem to shrink, and I draw in a deep breath until the suffocation subsides. “I don’t plan to go down that road again.”
Cash settles back in his chair, dark brows pulling together as he fingers his chin. The line of his jaw is cut from granite. “What are your top three strengths as an employee?”
“I thrive under pressure, can multitask without sacrificing work quality, and despite what you might think of my personal life, I have good work ethic.”
A sigh puffs off his lips. “You have no idea what I’m thinking. If you did, you would have left already.”
I can no more leave this office than he can push me out. I’m the magnet to his steel, the yin to his yang. A force of nature brought us together, and we can neither defy nor define it.
“What would you say is your biggest weakness?”
“Married men, apparently.”
One in particular, and he’s sitting across from me with a glower on his gorgeous face. “I’m trying here, Jules. Do you want the job, or not?”
“I want to go back in time and know you’re married.”
Had I known, I wouldn’t have flirted. I wouldn’t have lost myself to his voice and touch, and I definitely wouldn’t have ached for his kiss. A fucking kiss that should have never been a possibility, because even though I didn’t know he was married, he did.
“Jules…” he says, pushing a hand through his mussed hair. “An apology will never be enough for my behavior that night. If you take the job, we’ll keep things professional.”
Doubt plummets to the bottom of my gut. “I’m not sure I can.” Meeting his eyes is impossible—not after admitting in a roundabout way that my feelings for him are lightyears away from professional.
“You’re right,” he says, his voice strangled. “Working together is just asking for trouble, but professionalism aside, the thought of you walking away again is…” He’s shaking his head, as if trying to find the right words, but none are needed.
I know exactly what he means. For all the confrontational shit I’ve flung at him, I feel the same way.
“Ask yourself how you ended up in my office, of all places.”
Fate.
I crash into the storm of his eyes, unable to brake in time. The damage is done, and if I’m honest with myself, I was headed for destruction the instant I decided not to run the other way.
“Accept the job, Jules.”
There’s that tone again—a deep and commanding timbre that vibrates straight to the delta of my thighs. My mind is galloping ahead of me, imagining him using that tone as he bends me over his desk. The attraction I had to Perry was mild compared to this. It was minuscule and lacked depth—in truth harmless, until we somehow ended up in bed together.
But the chemistry between Cash and me is all-consuming, awakening me in ways I never believed possible. In ways I never knew existed. In ways I never knew I wanted. The energy surrounding us is scorching, and I’m too far gone to heed the warning licks of fire.
“Okay,” I say as I imagine my life going up in flames.
This man is going to be the death of me.
