Page 10 of Boss With Benefits

So she stuck Post-it notes adorned with the wordPROMOTION!!!to various items that surrounded her. She allowed herself to imagine in full dreadful detail how her life might fall apart should this audit go wrong—the humiliation, the uncertainty, the peril. Every time her gaze threatened to drift in his direction, she forced herself to recall her last performance review, during which she’d been told that she wasn’t quite ready for the next step up, and that snapped it straight back to the laptop.

Although it took considerable effort, to her relief, these strategies worked. Largely managing to ignore Adam’s existence, she soon found confidence in her spreadsheets andsettled into the role. Being on a different floor to her team turned out not to be as problematic as she’d expected, and over the next couple of days they made excellent progress, aided, she had to admit, by the degree of his involvement, which—both annoyingly and pleasingly—hadresulted in improved efficiency and ultra-quick results.

Ella wasn’t prone to pettiness, but she couldn’t deny that she’d relished bombarding him with emails, some of which didn’t actually require his attention. She wanted to make him pay for effectively holding her ransom by spamming his inbox. She wanted him to sorely regret forcing her to bend to his will. However, she was thwarted in those endeavours too, because not once did he tell her to desist. No matter how trivial or important the request, each was handled promptly without either comment or complaint.

There were only two issues to which she was having trouble getting a response. One was an unaccounted-for trip to London in the company’s private jet back in August last year. The other was the steady yet rapid purchase of millions of shares in a multinational called Helberg Holdings, whose portfolio was so sprawling yet in such trouble that no one could work out what he was doing with it.

Both anomalies had raised a flag with her team. Neither had yet been addressed, despite her repeated efforts to do so. Frustratingly, Adam had ignored the half dozen reminders she’d sent him, so on Wednesday afternoon she decided to tackle him directly.

Setting her jaw, practically vibrating with resolve, she picked up a notepad and pen and headed up the stairs to his office. ‘Do you have a moment to go through some queries?’ she said, trying not to notice how the sun streaming in through the acres of glass was giving him a corona that made him look like some sort of a god.

‘Not right now, I’m afraid,’ he replied as he pushed his chair back and got to his feet. ‘I’m about to head off for a meeting.’

‘When will you be back?’

‘I’m not sure. It could go on for a while.’

‘I thought you said you’d cleared your diary for the next two weeks.’

‘This one’s unavoidable.’

With a tight smile, he strode past her and out through the door before she could protest any further. And to her extreme irritation the meeting of his went on for so long that she didn’t see him for the rest of the day.

Undeterred, however, she tried again the following morning. But on that occasion she didn’t even manage to say a single word to him, because the minute she appeared at his door, he picked up his phone and said coolly, ‘Do excuse me, I need to take this,’ and that was that for the next two hours.

By Thursday evening, he’d left her with no choice but to take more drastic action. Determined to pin him down, she saw her opportunity when he left his office and headed for the lift. She slipped through the doors just before they closed, trapping them together, a move she regretted almost immediately when her lungs tightened and her head spun, as if all the oxygen had been sucked out of the space. How could she have forgotten what happened when she got too close to him? she wondered for one dizzying moment. Clearly, concentrating on work and being ignored by him these last few days had lulled her into a false sense of security.

But she would not be derailed from the plan, no matter what his effect on her, so halfway into the lift’s descent she hit the alarm, causing it to judder to an abrupt halt.

‘Why did you do that?’

Adam’s vaguely amused tone belied the stony glare he gave her. She ignored the rash of goose bumps breaking out allover her skin, the flare of heat and the quivering of her nerve endings, and focused. ‘We need to talk.’

‘And what exactly do you need to say that couldn’t have been said in my office?’

‘That’s the trouble. Nothing of significancewasbeing said in your office. All I heard were excuses.’

He didn’t even respond to that. He just let his glittering gaze drift over her before it settled on her mouth and lingered.

‘You know what happens when you and I find ourselves trapped together in confined spaces,’ he said, his voice seeming to drop an octave while her lips tingled and her mouth dried. ‘I realise we weren’t going to refer to that night again, but what else am I to read into this manoeuvre of yours other than invitation?’

In response to that, Ella’s heart gave a great lurch and then began to race. He was right. What was she doing? Instead of focusing on getting the answers she wanted, her head was clearing of everything but the urge to push him up against the polished walnut wall and kiss him the way she imagined in the early hours of the morning when she couldn’t sleep. What would he do if she did? Fire her? Or would he bury one hand in her hair and lift her skirt with the other, then tackle his belt, his zip, his underwear, and within seconds be thrusting deep inside her, driving her to the dazzling heights of pleasure she’d only experienced with him?

The former seemed more likely, she thought, her head spinning like a top. He was so cool. So contained. He’d shown no sign of being troubled by their continuing attraction. So what did he mean by bringing up that night? Why the seductive tones? Was he messing with her, playing mind games to remind her who was in command?

Well, right now, that evidently wasn’t her. In hindsight, this plan had been a terrible idea. So before her last few functioningbrain cells disintegrated and she acted on the wild desire suddenly crashing through her, she pulled herself together and jabbed the button to restart the lift.

‘You’re right,’ she said, consoling herself with the knowledge that she could try again tomorrow. With space. With air. Somehow. ‘My mistake.’

And when they reached the ground floor—in a matter of seconds, although it felt like an hour—she didn’t flee into the night as if the hounds of hell were snapping at her heels. Instead, she lifted her chin, gave him a cool smile and bade him a pleasant goodnight.

CHAPTER FIVE

INITIALLY,ELLA’SSUBMISSIONto his will on Monday morning had given Adam one hell of a buzz. Yes, securing her compliance had been vital for a number of business-related reasons, so on that level it had been a much-needed win. But there’d been something else mixed up in it too. Regaining the sense of control that had rapidly started diminishing in her dangerously distracting presence had felt critical, and seeing her forced to accept his command, to play byhisrules, had been not only deeply satisfying but also unexpectedly exhilarating.

However, the buzz had not lasted long. Nor had the plan he’d come up with the instant he’d realised that the past had collided with the present and his lead auditor was a woman with whom he’d shared one explosive encounter and to whom he was, inconveniently, still very much attracted.

Determined the audit would proceed without any further upset, he’d succeeded in staying out of her way as much as possible, in confining himself to his office and communicating entirely through email.

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