Page 18 of The Opposite Effect

Her throat works hard to swallow before she shakes her head. “It’s okay. I can take care of myself.” The shakiness of her words undermines the strength of her statement.

When we enter the manager’s office, I take a seat behind my old scratched-up desk. “If you stay out of my hair, I’ll stay out of yours. Then this arrangement might work out for both of us.”

An uncharacteristic smile spreads across Clara’s face. Although she looks out of place in my small, poorly furnished office, the careful consideration she paid while I explained her position shows she isn’t walking into this job lightheartedly. Surprisingly, she appears as if she actually wants to be here.Unsurprisingly, her smile has the front of my jeans tightening.

My body’s reaction to her pisses me off. Not because I’m ungrateful my cock appears to be back in working order but because the goal it is striving for is unattainable. I hardly know the woman standing before me, yet she already has me wanting to cross out the number one rule I swore I’d never break when I signed on as a partner at Inked.

Never mix business with pleasure.

The fact she already has me wanting to break my rules pisses me off more than the hardness in my jeans.

After she finishes absorbing the outdated office space, Clara connects her glistening eyes with mine. “Where’s my desk?”

I laugh while pushing my chair away from my desk. “There’s only one seat in this office, Princess. So you either take my knee, or…” My eyes stray to the faded red couch pushed up against the wall.

“The sofa it is,” Clara fills in, moving toward the couch.

I have a feeling this will be the longest two weeks of my life.

CHAPTER FIVE

“Still can’t believe you made Ms. Fancy Thing a member of the Inked family,” Diesel says while walking into my office. “You gonna keep her around?”

I drift my eyes past his shoulder to Clara manning the front counter before lifting my shoulders into a shrug. “She seems to be doing all right.”

Clara has slipped into her makeshift role at Inked surprisingly well. She’s a little uptight, but the male clientele has had no complaints—they’re too busy enjoying the view to be angry about her occasional smart mouth. The female customers, on the other hand… they’re not as appreciative of the qualities Clara brings to Inked.

Thankfully, our male-to-female ratio at Inked sits at around seventy to thirty.

I turn my eyes back to Diesel. “Have any of the guys said anything? Got any concerns if we keep her on?”

He lowers himself onto the couch, crumpling the paperwork Clara has sprawled across her ‘desk’ before locking his eyes withmine. “I wasn’t talking about keeping her around as an employee.” He stares at me with a jeering grin etched on his face. “I was talking on a morepersonallevel.”

A whizz of air parts my nose. “The only reason Clara is standing behind that counter is because she’s here for the dollars. Hell would freeze over before anythingpersonalhappens between us.”

The mocking grin on Diesel’s face enlarges. “Don’t go acting like your cock hasn’t stood to attention every time she greeted you with a bit of lip. You’ve always liked them with attitude. That’s why you’re always hiding out in your office the last two weeks… so your desk can conceal the stiffness in your jeans.”

I smirk but don’t refute his claim. Diesel and I have been friends since fifth grade, so he’d see through any ruse I dangled in front of him. I’m also not one for lying. Even with Clara giving me as good as I’ve been dishing the past two weeks, she just needs to nibble on the end of her pen, and my cock is paying careful attention to every move she makes.

I’m endeavoring to keep my head in the game—the head on my shoulders, not the one between my legs—whichensures our little tit-for-tat routine will never be anything more than an employee and employer having a difference of opinion.Now I just need my cock to get the memo.

Diesel cranks his neck to the side just as Clara bends over to gather a register roll from the lower shelf of the cabinet in the foyer. “Damn! I’d even take a bit of lip for an ass that fine.”

I sink deeper into my chair. “You’ve got to get the bar bunnies out of your bed before you’ll ever have the opportunity to get a woman of Clara’s standards between your sheets. Besides, Inked has rules on the crew not messing around. When that happens, shit gets complicated.”

Diesel chuckles. “Fuck the rules. We’ve never had a womanlike Clara work for us. If we did, the rules would have been broken years ago. And while I’m being totally fuckin’ forthright, you would have been the first to break them. You had a fondness for bending the rules before you were out of diapers.”

I smirk. What he’s saying is true. Not just on my rule-breaking, but on the previous female employees of Inked. Other than Charity, none had Clara’s sexpot beauty. They were interesting and had great personalities, but they were hired solely based on their credentials.

Does that mean I only hired Clara because she makes my dick twitch? No, not at all.

What?For someone who doesn’t like lying, you’re doing a mighty fine job of it, Brax.

In all honesty, at the start, Clara was offered a position solely because she’s beautiful. But she remains a member of Inked because she has a strong work ethic. Her looks are merely an added bonus. What Clara said during her impromptu interview was true. This situation is a win-win for us both. By keeping our clients happy, they will return again and again.

The visual of Clara prancing around the shop in skintight designer dresses keeps my clients happy.

I scrub my hand over the few days of stubble on my chin while saying, “There’s a difference between bending the rules and breaking them. Tapping Clara would be demolishing them.”

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