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He didn’t answer until he was fully dressed, and he didn’t hurry either. “I assume you mean fuck women around the office.” He slid his hand over his wavy dark hair, checking it out in the glass, presumably to assure none of the strands were out of place. They weren't. That only annoyed her more, because a quick glance told hershelooked like hell. “No. Not everyone’s as accommodating as you were tonight. Since obviously, I must make the offer often.”
She hopped off the desk and snatched at her clothes, feeling like ten kinds of a fool. He had to be lying. She rarely saw him speak to anyone. Besides, if the smokin’ printer guy had been boinking any of the secretaries, she’d have heard about it. Everyone talked. That was just part of working in an office that was almost like a family, complete with squabbles and attempts at one-upmanship.
“Well, now that you’ve been accommodated, you can let yourself out. I have edits to do,” she added on impulse.
In truth, her editor, Kitty, hadn’t even sent back her latest chapters yet. She had a different editor at the small publishing house she usually worked with, but Kitty was the editor she hired for her self-published ebooks.
Kitty had been a romance editor for years and her rates were good, and best of all, she seemed to really enjoy her job. They even joked back and forth in the edits, and Kitty had great ideas for plot twists. Normally, she was super-fast to boot, without charging a rush fee. Elena’s budget really appreciated that.
But not this time. This time, Kitty was taking longer than normal. Maybe Kitty had found a new way to spend her time too?
Was something occurring in the cosmos? Full moon, maybe?
“Bully for you. And just what I planned on doing, sweetheart.” Enzo picked up the sheaf of manuscript pages fanned across the carpet and set them on the desk with a quirk of his eyebrow. “Might want to clean this place up. We made quite a mess.”
Then he smiled at her, as sunny as Sunday morning, and strolled away.
* * *
Elena didn’t sleep. She stared at the ceiling all night, wondering why her body still had to be revving from a man who'd notched her on his belt and walked away. Patently unfair.
True, she’d sort of shoved him away with both hands, but that had been responsibility talking. Office sex and random hookups weren’t her style. She had morals. Standards.
And she wrote about things that her conservative parents would probably disown her for thinking about, never mind putting pen to paper and actually describing.
In vivid, paint-by-numbers detail.
But writing wasn’t doing. It also didn’t make her a hypocrite, although she couldn’t deny that in the middle of the night, alone in her empty queen bed, she definitely felt like one.
Morning came too soon. She picked up a huge to-go cup of coffee and a peach muffin, her normal breakfast, but she had no appetite. She took the back stairs and slunk into her office, sure someone would pop their head around the doorframe and yell, “Office ho!”
Or something equally scandalous.
A stack of work waited for her on her newly organized desk, and for once, she didn't complain under her breath. She was grateful to have plenty to keep her occupied, especially since she had no desire to revisit her work-in-progress, deadline or not.
She'd had plenty of time to re-evaluate things during her sleepless night, including her writing career. Maybe the extra money wasn't worth the potential trauma. She'd been writing at work for the better part of a year. She was damn lucky no one had caught her yet.
Yesterday had illustrated that fact perfectly.
Just because she got all her work done and helped her coworkers whenever possible didn't mean Mr. McGinty would let her skate by if he discovered her time theft. So she'd been a faithful employee for six years. In this economy, people were expendable, especially ones who broke the rules.
“Elena?”
She blinked and looked up at the pert voice of the front desk receptionist. “Yes, Jackie?”
“Mr. McGinty would like to see you at your earliest convenience.”
Elena laid a clammy hand over her suddenly jumping stomach. He knew. He'd found the condom she'd wrapped in six non-recyclable plastic bags and disposed of in the lunchroom wastebasket. Maybe they'd installed a camera in her office without her knowledge. Perhaps someone had discoveredSwells of Lovewhere she'd saved it on her hard drive, labeled simply, “Briefs.”
Or maybe Enzo had decided to wreak some havoc to go with his orgasm delivery service.
“Elena?”
“Yeah.” She forced herself to her feet and pasted a wobbly smile on her face. Might as well get fired early enough in the day that she didn't have to waste money buying lunch. “Now's as good a time as any.”
“Sure is.” Jackie bobbed her head and wiggled her tight little ass as she led the way across the department. Her skirts were as short as Candace's.
Elena, on the other hand, had chosen her most nondescript outfit today, lest anyone think she were some kind of sexing-on-the-desk tramp. She'd worn baggy black slacks and a gray turtleneck sweater, but the one area she hadn't skimped on were her undergarments. She'd donned her prettiest push-up bra and her one and only thong in the same candy pink. Just in case.
