Page 2 of Her Bossy Daddy

Chapter One

Lacey

Whispers floated up the hallway as I headed down the main corridor at work. My team and I were welcoming a new member today, my direct supervisor, and we were about to meet him for the first time. One woman in front of me mumbled about his managerial style meshing with her requirements while the other two gushed about his possible attractiveness, age, and also placed bets on his marital status. Ugh. I just hoped the two of us would get along. It had been about six months since I’d had a formal manager after the old stick in the mud retired. That woman had been a crotchety, ill-tempered bat, so anyone else had to be an improvement. No one knew about my intense dislike for my previous boss. No, I was always professional at my job. Polite and courteous to a fault. I entered the conference room and drank in the sight of him as he stood off to the side of the table, engaged in conversation with a few colleagues. Wow. Broad shoulders, crisply ironed lines on his white dress shirt, a strong jawline with a short dark beard and trimmed mustache. He’s so handsome. My gaze continued upward to two even darker green pools. Realization flickered across them. I clutched a hand to my throat as my breath caught, and then the room spun over my head. I was sucked into his deep green eyes, which I’ve spent hours staring into through a tiny webcam window. Somehow Liam was suddenly about two feet in front of me. Blinking several times, I attempted to regain my composure, but stars flooded my vision followed by blackness.

* * *

Liam

“Lacey’s as white as a sheet!” someone exclaimed, and the reality of the situation dawned on me. I tore my gaze from the gorgeous brown eyes I’d been captivated by and advanced to her side. Anticipating the inevitable, I caught her mid-fall. Shit. Lacey, my lovely girlfriend, was passed out in my arms. Over the past few weeks our relationship had hit a few stumbling blocks, ones we had yet to work out, and our new professional relationship would require even more care. I had no idea she worked here.

“You.” I pointed to an older gentleman. “Please go grab some cold, wet towels from the restroom, and a bottle of water from the break room. “ My medical skills dusted themselves off. I rarely used them at all, much less in the office. But now all those medic classes had amounted to something. I strode to the table and carefully placed Lacey on it. “Does anyone have a sweater or jacket?” A sweater appeared, and I rolled it up and bunched it under her ankles. “Lacey, can you hear me?”

Since I’d told her about the relocation to New York, she’d avoided me at every juncture. The fantastic opportunity presented by our company was a once in a lifetime chance. I couldn’t pass it up. We never talked about work much, let alone revealed the name. Who knew we worked for the same damn corporation? It didn’t make a big difference though. Fuck. I envisioned our first face-to-face meeting going so much better than this.

“I can hear you.” She blinked open her eyes. “Um. Oh.” Her beautiful cognac-colored eyes locked on mine, but they were wide in fright. “I’m fine.” Lacey shifted as if to get up, but I placed a hand on hers to stop her.

“Easy, love,” I whispered against her ear. “You fainted.” The older gentleman returned with the requested items and I accepted them with thanks. I placed the towel on the back of her neck and checked her pulse with the hand still pressed to hers. “Let’s take twenty. All right?”

Murmurs of agreement mingled with concern, and then the others filed out of the room.

“I’m fine,” she repeated. “I, uh, just got a bit dizzy. It’s fine.”

“Your pulse isn’t racing as fast as it was a minute ago.” I released her wrist. She bit down on her lip and I watched her work it in and out of her teeth. The gesture drove me wild with desire during our video chats, and in the flesh, it sparked the same want. Longing to suck on it, I licked along my own lips, fighting the urge to nibble hers. I failed in an attempt to keep my hands to myself and dragged a finger across her bottom lip.

“You probably shouldn’t touch my mouth at work.”

“Sorry, love.” I dropped my hand to her waist and guided her to an upright position.

“This racks up as much humiliation as showing up to school with no clothes on.”

“Come again?” Tapping the towel with my free hand, I encouraged her to hold it. I slid the sweater out from her feet, and then hung it on the back of a chair. “This is nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“So you say,” she muttered. “I’ve never even called in sick around here, and I just made a fool of myself. It’s a miracle I didn’t hit the floor.”

“I caught you.” Her cheeks turned scarlet at the mention but I wasn’t entirely sure why it bothered her.

“How did you manage to do that? I’m not a size—”

“Hm?” Something shifted in the air between us, and she slammed her trap shut. “What was that?”

“I, uh, wasn’t going to say anything worth mentioning.”

“I thought not.” Interesting. One of our rules stated she was not to put herself down in any way. The repercussions had been self-inflicted when an ocean separated us, but that was no longer the case. I hoped Lacey would reconsider her words more often. Our relationship wasn’t acknowledged yet, but we would discuss it later. “Here. Drink some water.” I handed her the bottle, and she accepted it with a small smile.

“Thank you.” She took a few good swallows from the bottle, but her eyes never left mine.

“I’m going to formally introduce myself at the meeting, but I’ll tell you I’ve recently been promoted. I’m now the head of marketing for the US branch.” I extended my hand as a formality. “Liam O’Connell.”

“Lacey Porter.” She took my hand and gave it an awkward shake. “It’s nice to meet you. I’ve heard wonderful things from upper management but never connected the dots.” A cool calm suddenly fell over her. “They usually send out a mass email. Why did they give you a top-secret promotion?”

“It’s no secret, love. Just a lot of paperwork. Upper management didn’t have my start date set since relocating from another country can get sort of hairy.”

“Did they grant you a work visa or did you have to file on your own?”

“It’s more complicated than you might imagine. Since I’ve already been working for the company for seven years they sponsored me to be here on a temporary green card. If I want to stay here I need to apply for citizenship.”

“Oh, wow.” Both of her eyebrows rose up as if she was processing everything. “I can’t believe we’ve been at the same company all this time. I’ve been here for ten.”

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