Page 28 of Borden 3

My cheeks burned as I sat back down. “I never see them again, either. It’s why I don’t even wear my favourite ones. Office thongs get stolen all the damn time. I have a full budget that I write off as a business expense. I should really stop wearing anything at all, or you’d run out of money. Bet that would be a great lesson for you to learn, huh?”

“Direct access to that perfect pussy? Yes, punish me, doll.”

I smiled stupidly. “That’s sort of your job, though, isn’t it?”

He looked up from the Chadwick file he’d reclaimed from the ground. Everything else remained there. It looked like a bomb had gone off if someone were to peer in. God, I hoped Gerry wouldn’t be back at the door to ask whether he was allowed to breathe. “You’re in a chatty mood today, alleycat.”

“You’re not the only one that is capable of being soul suckingly annoying.”

His eyes warmed; it was usually the only part of him that seemed to thaw faster than anywhere else. “Are you trying to get me to punish you now?”

“What would you have in mind?”

“You’d be on your knees—”

“I already did that—”

“—your entire shift.”

My eyes bulged. “What?”

“I’d have you on your knees by my desk for the whole day.”

“What’s the sexual part of that?”

Now his lips spread slowly. “Baby, not everything needs to be sexual to satisfy me.”

I made a sound of disgust. “You perv.”

“Yeah.”

“I would never do that.”

“You would.”

“Never.”

He looked back at his papers with that imperious look. “We’ll see, doll.”

“Fuck that, we won’t.”

“I’d pet you, too.”

“Oh, you’re really pushing me now.” I was tempted to grab the stapler and throw it at him next.

“My perfect little sex kitten.”

I returned to my work now, scoffing. “Never.”

We were hardly five minutes into our work when Borden’s dummy phone went off like a rocket. I stilled, my eyes drilled to it vibrating on the floor. He caught my glance, his amusement faded as he got off his chair to scoop it.

“Yeah?” he answered.

He listened in. I couldn’t hear what was said, but Borden’s face said it all. His expression turned lethal. His voice was eerie when he said, “Hold him still, Hector. I want to take care of it.”

He hung up. When he looked at me this time, my eyes were back on my work, but I wasn’t actually punching in the numbers. I stared at the spreadsheet, my heart sinking.

“Emma—”

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