Page 2 of Daddy, Sir

“Who’s the best?” the captain demanded.

“I’m not sure what the criteria would be,” she waffled. Surely, he didn’t want to know her opinion.

“Who’s the best?” he repeated in a harsher tone.

“Jerico Adams. He has an outstanding record. In addition, every member of his former team wrote recommendations for him as well as his commanding officers. All of those included the terms problem solver, diplomat, and proven leader.”

“Well done. Send that decision to HR with my stamp on it. Then grab your computer and come into my office. I haven’t had a schedule for three months. You can make me one.”

He turned and walked into his office, leaving Tatiana staring after him. She smiled. He was gruff and demanding. He was also gorgeous and incredibly fit. And he’d trusted her decision. That made her nervous and exhilarated.Please, let me have made the right choice.

“Type up the decision and send it to HR, Tatiana,” his voice growled from the office, sending a shiver up her spine.

She was going to hear that voice in her fantasies for a while. Dragging her focus back to the stack of files, she sat and created the document. Filing it in the HR queue electronically, Tatiana followed the signs on the walls directing her as she walked briskly with the files to return them and clear off a spot on her desk.Damn, this is fun.

When she returned, Tatiana picked up her computer along with a pen and a pad of paper. She walked to the open doorway and knocked.

“Come in, Tatiana. Take a seat.” The captain waved a hand at an empty chair. He finished typing something quickly on his laptop as she got settled. “Okay. Let’s get this calendar going. Repeated events or single meetings?”

“I’m sorry, Sir?” Tatiana didn’t understand.

He sighed and shook his head. “What do you want to start with?”

“Oh. Now, I’m with you. Repeated events,” she selected.

In rapid fire, he dictated the normal weekly, biweekly, and monthly meetings he had. Tatiana struggled at first and had to ask him to repeat a few things, but soon got into the swing of using the program. Within an hour, they had a perfectly organized meeting schedule that would only need to be tweaked from now on out.

She looked up at him triumphantly. “We did it!”

“Of course we did. Go check for anything else urgent we need to deal with now,” he ordered.

Disheartened by his demeanor, Tatiana said, “Of course, Sir,” as she rose, juggling her things. To her horror as she picked up her computer, she bobbled the notepad, and the pen flew across the office to smack into the window and drop to the floor. Turning, Tatiana set her device back on the chair and ran around the desk to grab her pen. She skidded, trying desperately to stop when she saw the stacks of files behind his desk. Completely off-balanced, Tatiana felt herself falling.

“Oof.” Captain Murphy caught her and tugged her safely away from his files to a safe spot. On his lap.

“Oh! I am so sorry. I didn’t know you had all those stacks there.” She stumbled over the words as she tried to slide quickly off his hard thighs. Tatiana froze as she realized he held her in place.

“Of course you didn’t. Are you okay?” the captain asked.

“I’m fine. I just feel like an idiot.” Tatiana realized her skirt had hiked up on one side, showing a long expanse of her thigh. She yanked at the hem. “If you’ll just let me get up…”

“Are you done flailing around back here?”

Her gaze flew to meet his. Was that amusement in his eyes? “I promise, Sir.”

“Very good, little girl.” Captain Murphy lifted Tatiana off his lap and stood her next to his chair. “Find the stack on your desk that deals with the budget. There are items that need quotes. Please send those out for bids today and ask for a completion date early next week.”

“Got it.” Tatiana returned to the outer and searching through the piles for the budget folder when his words repeated in her head.Little girl.No. There’s no way he meant that like a Little girl in her stash of books on her reader.

Chapter Two

By the end of the day, Tatiana was exhausted. She looked at the blank space on her desk with a sense of accomplishment. It wasn’t half-emptied, but now, she didn’t have to balance her computer on top of piles at least. Captain Murphy had left the office a couple of hours earlier for a meeting and Tatiana had slogged through as much as she could.

“You won’t get overtime, you know.”

Tatiana didn’t even need to look up to know who had paid her a visit. She closed the top of her computer and looked up, forcing herself to smile. “Hi. Just finishing up for the day. You know how it is. I don’t want to lose track of something in the middle.”

“Sure. Work for free if you want to,” the spiteful brunette sneered.

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