Page 46 of The Guy Who Became My Grumpy Boss

“You’re going to go home and relax.” I reached around her and grabbed her jacket off the back of her chair.

As usual, her perfume was distracting, as was the fact that I could see her chest rising and falling from breathing hard.

Was she angry?

It didn’t matter. She needed rest.

“I’m fine,” Jessica insisted.

She wasn’t. The crease between her eyebrows told me she’d been squinting at her screen for too long, and the fact that she’d taken off her jacket told me she was more than a little frustrated. “You will be, when you get out of here. Don’t you have friends in town? Go to dinner with them.”

Jessica’s teeth clacked together, and her jaw thrust forward. Her blue eyes stared into mine, daring me to make her do anything.

I didn’t let up. She would be here for another two hours if I didn’t kick her out. “I need you on point tomorrow and for the rest of the week.” The real issue was that I needed her to be at thetop of her game in case I faltered.

“What about you?” She reached out and poked me in the chest. She’d never done that before, and it felt like a knife, but instead of stabbing, it brought more of those delightful zings under my shirt.

“What about me?” I said in a soft voice.

Jessica’s gaze still held mine. “You need to unwind.”

A chime sounded from my pocket, and I remembered that I was supposed to see Marissa tonight. “I’m meeting a friend for dinner in an hour. I won’t be here long.”

Jessica opened her mouth, and I wondered if she was going to ask who I was seeing, but then she shut her jaw and shrugged her shoulders. “I can stay and finish this up.”

“No.”

“No?” She raised an eyebrow.

“No,” I said again. “You’re leaving. I’ll send a strongly worded message to all of the supervisors telling them to get their people to act like grown adults and not junior high students, then I’ll go too.”

Jessica stepped toward me, and the air between us grew dense. “I’m going to hold you to that.”

“You can.”

“I’m going to text you in an hour and make sure you’re not here.”

I nodded. “I’m going to do the same, as well as checking your account to make sure you’re not working from home.”

We glared at one another, but there was something besides animosity coming from both of us.

Jessica spoke through gritted teeth. “Fine.”

I offered her the jacket. “Have a good night.”

Jessica opened her mouth to say something but closed it before snatching her jacket away.

Our fingers brushed, and a now familiar tingle ran up myarm. “I’ll see you in the morning,” I said.

“Uh-huh.”

With that, I went to my office and slid behind my desk. I saw Jessica’s retreating form and heard the elevator ding.

Only then did I realize that I’d had that entire conversation with Jessica without having planned it first.

I hadn’t intended to bully her into leaving—I hadn’t intended anything actually—it had just happened. Naturally. Without me having to observe and rehearse beforehand.

What was the smart, sassy, beautiful Jessica doing to me?

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