Page 8 of Her Impossible Boss's Baby

“You seem perturbed by that.”

She looked at him, and he saw her cheeks turn a slight shade of rose. She was affected by his nudity, and that was a terrible thing for him to observe. She was his assistant. She was out of bounds in that way. He had placed her there the moment he had first noticed that she was beautiful. He had not noticed immediately.

When he had hired her his immediate thought had been simply replacing one incompetent person with the next, as he knew the churn would continue.

But Polly had broken the cycle. She had become a one-woman management team. The Swiss Army knife of personal assistants.

And then one night, May twenty-fourth, four years prior, he could recall it clearly, the light in his office had caught strands of gold in her hair, as she had leaned in to hand him his espresso. It was three in the morning, and they were at the office late, with her assisting with whatever he needed.

He had been gripped then, with a hunger that had surpassed anything he had ever known before.

Sex was an appetite, like any other. He could forget about it sometimes, the same as he forgot to eat when he was deeply involved in a project. But eventually, it had to be satisfied. That was how he had always seen it.

A practicality. A necessity.

And because he saw it that way, it made it simple for him to observe the rules around it. And one very clear rule was that one did not make sexual advances to those who were subordinate.

Polly was his subordinate, and an extremely important one. Which meant that that momentary, violent hunger had to be locked away. Which he had done.

Very few things had the will to defy him. But Polly did. And in that, he supposed it shouldn’t be such a surprise that on occasion the strength of his need for her defied his rules as well.

But it was nothing he would ever act on.

This was the first time he had looked at her and realized she felt the same.

She always seemed bright-eyed, efficient and practical. He had acknowledged his attraction to her, but he had never thought about her own attractions, desires. He had never taken the step to thinking of her as a set being.

She was a tool. A lovely one. But had never been a whole person to him. Why should she be? It was not reasonable or practical.

And there she was, blushing prettily and demanding that he consider her feelings around the work that he asked her to do. The schedule he asked her to keep.

“You will continue to do your job. There will be no argument about it.”

“Two weeks,” she said, her blue eyes flashing. The color in her face intensified, and this, he thought, was anger. “I will give you two weeks, Luca. And not a day more. That means the day after the summit ends, I’m coming back to Italy, and I will not see you again.”

“I assume that means you’ll be flying commercial, then. How nice for you.”

She laughed. “I’ve survived it before. I can surely survive it again.”

“I’m not certain that you can. I think that you have forgotten everything that I’ve given to you, because you’re so dedicated to your own fiction. We both know that you are not a sophisticate. Not the one that you pretend to be. When I met you, you had absolutely no job experience.”

“I was getting an education.”

“And a fine one you got. But don’t forget that many people have degrees, and the thing that sets you apart is your very particular job experience.”

She looked outraged by that. Because he was right. He knew that. “Currently, what sets me apart is that my boss is unreasonable.”

“What boss would allow an employee to simply walk away from something this major?”

As far as his personal story went, he was not inclined to share it with the world. That his mother had died of cancer was a basic truth, anyone could discover it for themselves if they wished. But he didn’t speak of it.

It would be apparent to that person that the work he did came from personal experience. He did not know if Polly knew that. And he had no inclination to tell her.

It shouldn’t make a difference.

“That’s the thing. Mostly, it’s not about being allowed to do anything. Because it is generally understood that a boss does not own his employee. But you treat me like you do.”

“I remind you again of the contract—”

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