Page 24 of Obsession

The flash of her sulky expression tightens my jaw. I’m glad there are witnesses around to prevent me from grabbing her by a fistful of her hair and slamming my mouth down on hers. That slight pout that vanishes just as soon as it appears is etched into my brain for the rest of the night.

“I have classes until four,” she counters. “And I can’t afford branded clothes, sir.”

The brat almost curtsies when she refers to me as sir. Interesting how my dick likes it. I’ve never met a woman who gets under my skin as quickly as she does.

“Did you just call me sir?”

“Would you prefer, mister?”

“After your classes then,” I tell her sternly, refusing to look at her sassy, painted mouth, which is a vibrant red. “And you might want to control that cheekiness, or I might just forget that you work for me. If you want to act like a brat, I know how to deal with one.”

Her lips part in shock with that same confused desire, but I leave, my blood humming in need. This time, I go straight to my office, my pants feeling uncomfortably tight, and I choose not to lay eyes on her for the rest of the night...for her sake and mine.

Lars shows up after Megan’s shift is over. I’m not sure whether I’m annoyed or relieved that the file he hands me is light.

“There’s not much on her,” he shrugs. “She was fired from the last two places she worked because a man showed up. He kept harassing her there until the workplaces let her go, but they confirmed that prior to those incidents, she was a good worker.”

“Who’s the man?”

“Could be an ex-boyfriend or something, but the description I got was of a man much older than that.”

“What did you find about her family background?”

“Once again, not that much. Her father had an affair, and then her mother was out of the picture. Father married his mistress, and they had a child together. The kid lived with them.“

“The kid?” I say with a warning, not because Lars is wrong, but because I don’t want to hear it. I don’t need to hear that I’ve had a hard-on for akidall fucking night.

Lars corrects himself. “The young lady lived with them until she was eighteen but was in and out of the hospital until then. Her father has a ton of gambling debts, though, and her younger half-sister is eighteen now. It doesn’t seem as if she’s not in touch with any of them.”

I open the file and skim the medical reports attached.

“Abuse,” I murmur. “They abused her in that house.”

I glance at Lars, who looks unaffected, but his eyes hold a wealth of anger. He doesn’t talk about it much, but I know that Lars came from an abusive household back in his country. If I suspected this was her background, I would have made Parker look into Megan instead.

“She got a scholarship at State Arts College,” I say loudly, my lips curving. “How interesting.”

Lars knows why I’m amused, but he doesn’t comment on it.

“You think that’s why she came here?” he finally asks.

“I doubt it,” I respond. “She doesn’t know anything about me.”

The file shows that Megan doesn’t have much of a social life.

“There is one thing,” Lars says hesitantly. “It seems that Miss Taylor came close twice to losing that scholarship. It might not be relevant, but the first time was the first week she started here. There was a shooting in the club, and she called the police.”

I remember that incident. It was about six months ago, and at the time, Megan’s name had come up, but I’d been too busy doing damage control to worry about one lone bartender. I had been under the impression that Steve had fired the person who called the police.

So, it was this troublemaker.

Why am I not surprised?

“For somebody who keeps her head down, she sure gets dragged into a lot of things,” I comment. “What about the second time?”

Lars hesitates to tell me the next thing. “I don’t have any hard evidence of this, but I believe just before Miss Taylor joined us, there was an incident at her school.”

“What kind of incident?”

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