Page 5 of Entice

“Can you?” He turned his hands palms up. “It means we’re going to be working closely together. Late nights and weekends.”

Crystal swallowed. How was she going to handle her attraction to him? She blew out a breath. “I can be professional; can you?” She almost clamped her hand over her mouth. She hadn’t meant for those words to slip out.

Jordan’s eyes widened, and then a grin spread over his lips.

“That came out wrong. You’re going to be my boss and nothing more.” She closed her eyes. She was making a mess of this. “What I mean is—”

“I know what you meant. I’m going to lay my cards on the table, so to speak. I’m attracted to you, Crystal. There was a spark from the first night.” He held his hand up when she opened her mouth. “Please, let me finish. I will be professional on the job, totally and completely.”

“Jordan, if you’re going to be my boss, we can’t have a personal relationship.” Oh but she wanted to. Where was her willpower? He was a lawyer, and she’d promised herself—after her last failed relationship with a lawyer—she would never get involved with anyone she worked with.

“This has nothing to do with your job and never will.”

“I want that in the employment contract.” The words came out before she could stop them.

His grin widened. “Done.” He stood. “Be right back.” Crystal blinked. What the hell happened? Before she could analyze it, Jordan returned with Kendra.

Kendra had a stack of papers in her hand. “Here’s the new employment contract,” Kendra said, sliding it across to Crystal.

She flipped through the pages until she got to the end. She read the added wording.Oh my, he’s serious.He’d put in the contract anything personal between them had nothing to do with her job, and she would be paid in full no matter what. Even if she left the job early.

“Change the ‘paid in full no matter what’ to ‘paid in full for all work completed at the time of separation’.” Crystal pushed the contract back to Kendra.

Kendra made the changes, initialed, as did Jordan, then gave it back to Crystal who initialed it. She read the rest and then picked up a pen. This was crazy. She was crazy.

“Hold on,” Kendra said. “Let’s get a notary up here. I want this done properly.”

“Agreed.” Jordan pulled his phone out.

“Hey, Holly, it’s Jordan. Can you come up to the office, conference room one for a minute and notarize a contract? Thanks.” He hung the phone up. “Holly will be here in a few minutes.”

She hadn’t expected the notary, but it would protect her and his firm. She reached down and pulled her wallet out of her bag and then pulled out her driver’s license. When there was a knock on the door, Crystal straightened.

Jordan opened the door, and a bubbly blonde woman walked in. “Okay, Jordan, what do you need?”

“I want you to notarize an employment contract between myself and Crystal.”

The woman looked at her and smiled. “Easy job.” She sat down at the table and laid down her book and seal. “The contract please, Jordan, and Crystal, your ID. We’ll get this taken care of.”

Crystal handed Holly her license.

“Very good.” She handed them back and then flipped to the last page of the contract. “All right, if you’ll each sign.”

Crystal took the pen Holly held out, signed the contract, and handed it to Jordan, and he signed. Holly signed and applied the raised seal. “Done.” She left the office.

“I’ll get you copies of this and the NDA for your records.” Kendra stood and took the papers off the table. “Be right back.”

“Now that’s out of the way…” He gestured for her to sit.

Crystal shook her head as she put her license away and sat down. “You’re moving fast.”

“Time’s of the essence. Can you start tomorrow?”

“Yes.” Her fingers tingled with excitement to start a new job.

“Good. I start at seven, but if you’re here by eight, it will be fine. Tomorrow I have to be in court in the morning. Kendra is usually here by seven-thirty, and Valerie, the receptionist, arrives at eight.”

“I can be here when Valerie gets here.” She ran over her schedule in her head.

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