Page 11 of Her Boss

“I-I’m sorry, sir,” Chloe said, right behind her. “I tried to stop her. She… she says she has to talk to you.”

I suspected I knew exactly what the girl wanted to speak to me about. “It’s okay, Chloe. It’s all right. You can leave her with me. It’ll be fine.”

Reluctantly, she retreated, the door closing behind her with a soft snick.

“What the hell is this?” Geneva paced in front of my desk, the piece of paper I’d given her clenched in one fist. “I show up at this place, this dump, and the bitch running it tells me to take my rags off. Rags? What the fuck?”

I laced my fingers behind my head, plastering my best shit-eating grin on my face. I knew exactly what treatment Geneva would have received from Brooke, the proprietress of Unmentionables, the store I’d sent Geneva to for her work-appropriate clothes. “Yes, and what seems to be the problem?”

“Problem? The bitch basically said I needed to strip naked so she could”—Geneva held up air quotes—“‘see what I’m working with here.’”

I sighed long and loud, leveling a glare at her. “What did I tell you?”

“This cunt seems to think that dressing me in slutty lingerie and revealing street walker chic was what was needed for this j?—”

“I said, what did I tell you? Answer the question, Geneva.”

Her mouth opened and closed silently, her eyes fluttering, the girl apparently losing the power of speech for a moment.

“Answer me!” I snapped.

“I-I don’t know.” She glanced down. “To do as I’m… told? I guess?” She flashed a defiant glare at me though. “But that doesn’t mean she has any right to?—”

“Shut that mouth,” I said quietly, meeting her gaze.

“—tell me to take all my shit off and… uh, what?”

“Stop talking.” I rose from my chair, walking slowly around my desk, the tips of the fingers of my right hand posed upon the desktop as I moved. “And listen to me.”

“O-okay.”

“That isn’t being quiet.” I walked up to her, placing my hand across her mouth. My big palm covered the entirety of the lower half of her face. Her skin was impossibly soft and smooth. “Shhhh.”

Wisely, she simply nodded, her pretty blue eyes big and bright as they peered up at me. The fright, confusion, and something else much, much more embarrassing for her swirled in those gorgeous liquid depths.

“You don’t seem to understand your position here, Geneva. So, I’m going to explain it for you. But you don’t get to reply until I think you finally have learned how to behave. How long it takes for me to be satisfied on that front is entirely up to you. Got me?”

She nodded, her cheeks suffusing with a deep red.

“Good. That’s a start. Now, I’m going to take my hand away, but don’t for one fucking second think that that means I want to hear anything coming out of that smart mouth of yours. Not one little thing, you hear me?”

Another nod.

I removed my hand and sat down on the desk in front of her, crossing my ankles. “First. Don’t you come bursting into my office ever again. I could have had a client in here, or I could have been on an important call. Or I could have been doing nothing more important than having an afternoon fucking snooze. The point is, any and all of those possibilities are more important than your perceived right to come barging into a room where you haven’t been given express prior permission to enter. Am I making myself perfectly clear?”

Her slender throat worked, her plump lips showing just a hint of trembling. Her quick nod, pregnant with reluctance, was so subtle, I almost missed it.

“Now, you’re finally getting it.”

I stood once more, strolling around her in a long, lazy circle, certain her fear and embarrassment at having been called on the carpet would keep her rooted to her spot.

She didn’t disappoint. The only part of her that moved was her head, as she watched my every step, her eyes following me as I paced around her.

“Second. When I give you an order, and you disobey, there will be no repeating of that order again. It’ll be assumed that you just didn’t feel like following those orders. So, there will be consequences. We’ll be taking care of those now, right here in this office.”

Her lashes fluttered, her lips forming silent words, as if she meant to speak. My raised finger stopped her in her tracks though. “You want to keep digging that hole? Go ahead and talk. Say anything you like. If not, keep quiet.”

She snapped her mouth shut, looking down at the floor. Geneva had never looked more adorable than she did in that very moment.

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