Page 3 of Foreplay with the Boss

“Are you…?” The woman that had me thinking dirty thoughts at 7:20 on a Monday morning shook her head. “Never mind.”

“What?” Judging by the way she’d “tried” to ask those guys to move, I had a feeling that she started and stopped sentences a lot.

“You just looked angry, like you might kill someone, and then you switched to…I don’t know. Determined, I guess, which I hope isn’t determination to kill someone, which I know it most likely isn’t, and this is really coming out wrong. Basically I just wanted to make sure you were okay, but I’m sure you are, and that you’re probably busy…” She gestured to my laptop that’d been more out of necessity of my reaction to her than needing to work, even though I did like to make good use of my forty-minute commute. It gave me extra time to answer all the emails that’d piled up overnight so that once I arrived at the office I could get right to the present-day to-do list.

“I think I’ve gotten as much work done on my ride as I’m going to.” Thanks to the fact that I want to stare at you and imagine dirty scenarios for a little while longer. I debated giving her my card, or getting her number. But she didn’t have the look of a hookup type of girl, and either of those moves seemed more like what someone who dated would do, and I had more than enough on my plate right now.

I have that new person starting today, too, which means I’m going to get an even later start to my day. Agreeing to let Stu Taylor’s daughter work for me over the next six weeks was probably one of the stupider things I’d agreed to, considering the direction I was about to take the company, but I couldn’t bring myself to say no when he’d called.

Which is a weakness, and you can’t afford to be soft, not now that you’re so close. I told myself the same thing I had since striking the arrangement. That it’d keep some goodwill between us, even after everything went down.

Of course, if I was going to have one of the people from the marketing division at the office, I would’ve preferred one of his strongest, not one who needed trained on how to be a boss.

Talk about a fucking waste of my time.

Instead of wasting more time regretting a decision I’d already made—one I’d stick to, because I gave my word, and honestly it was the least I could do for Stu—I turned my attention back to the woman batting big hazel-colored eyes at me. Fuck, even her makeup had the smeared look of someone who’d been laid this morning.

It’d been weeks on my end, and I had the irrational urge to prove to her that I could show her a better time. What are you going to do? Shove her into the miniscule bathroom, hike up that skirt, and take her against the wall?

I bit back a groan. No, quick and in a bathroom wasn’t my style, but that didn’t sound as bad of an idea as it was supposed to. I needed to redirect my thoughts.

I noticed she was wringing her hands, picking at non-existent threads, and that was the third time she’d switched her crossed legs—not that I was counting or thinking about throwing basic decency and social norms out the window, leaning forward, and running my hands up them to see if they were as smooth as they looked. “I’m Jameson, by the way,” I said, extending a hand.

“Kat.” She slowly extended her hand to me and I slipped it inside of mine and gave it a firm shake.

“Big day?”

She looked across at me, her chest rising and straining against that shirt before falling. “How’d you…?”

“Guess?” I finished, since she wasn’t apparently going to. “You look a little nervous.”

“Oh, that’s how I usually look,” she said with a self-deprecating laugh. “Probably because I’m always nervous. But I’m starting a new job today, and I want to make a good impression, so I’m nervous.”

Lucky bastards, whoever she was working for. They’d get to stare at her all day. Of course I couldn’t afford that distraction, and I’d never date an employee—that was just a shitstorm waiting to happen, and I had enough shitstorms to take care of on a daily basis.

She scooted forward and whispered, “I probably should’ve chosen the sensible shoes I first put on instead of these ones. I’m supposed to work on being more serious, but I just feel like life’s too short for boring shoes, you know?”

Twenty minutes ago, I wouldn’t know, but looking at the dangerous-looking heels on her feet, I now did. “You chose right. Those’ll definitely make an impression.”

“But maybe the wrong impression?”

I ran my fingers across my jaw like I was contemplating, then leaned down and lifted her foot a few inches. “I’m sticking with my original answer.” Without thinking, I brushed my thumb across the top of her foot. Her sharp intake of breath sent heat zinging through my veins.

There was something about this woman that made me want to do something I normally didn’t. I could call her sometime. Go to dinner. Take her home…You couldn’t always tell someone’s M.O. by just looking at them. Maybe she’d be fine with light and casual.

Maybe what she needed was someone to distract her from her nervousness and make her forget her name for a while.

The train lurched to a stop and she braced her hand on my knee when she slid forward. Then she quickly yanked it back. “Sorry.”

“Well, I touched your foot, so I think it’s only fair.”

“Yeah, and you picked up my tampons, so we kind of skipped normal-exchanges-with-a-stranger a while ago.” An adorable blush crept across her cheeks. “Can you forget that I said that? I’m having a problem with the filter between my brain and my mouth, and I don’t want to be remembered as the tampon girl. Which is why I keep freaking saying the word.”

Amusement rose up, and I shot her a smile. “I’ll forget that part. Touching me, though— that’s going to stay in my head for a while.”

Her mouth dropped open and she blushed again. God, the blush and the hint of innocence turned me on even more. Surely men flirted with her all the time, but she acted like she couldn’t believe I was doing it.

She licked her lips. “I…”

---