Page 5 of The Boss

“I’ll look inside my office.” She turns, motioning for me to follow her.

Really? Into her office?

I’ve never been there before. The few times she addressed me, it was downstairs at my desk or in the center of the greater executive office. The only people who get to come into Julianna’s private office are her business associates, assistant, sometimes the secretary, and…

The barrage of girlfriends she dates.

Julianna Marcon has been through as many girlfriends as I have fingers, and that’s since I started working here a few months ago. I swear, every week a new woman in her twenty-somethings (and the occasional thirty-something) parades through this office wearing something Ms. Marcon has recently purchased for her. Their hair colors change. Sometimes their physiques change. Some of them are educated and some of them are so stupid you wonder how they put their bras on in the morning – then you realize they’re not even wearing one. Yet aside from any women she does business with, those are the only ones I see coming in here.

Now, me?

Ms. Marcon’s large, personal office is Spartan at best, drab and impersonal at worst. The furniture is your usual assortment of black wood and leather. A few tastefully abstract paintings hang on the wall. Lots of potted plants, but none of them real… only deceptively fake, because who knows what business associate might be allergic? The only visible sign of tech is her huge computer monitor and ergonomic accessories. A dark-finish bookcase lines the wall behind her chair, full of law books, business books, economic books… and a few spare copies of Victorian literature. Later, I’ll find out that she keeps First Edition copies in her waterfront penthouse.

She sits on the front edge of her desk. It takes a few inches off her imposing height, but she’s still the powerful, dominant figure of the room. Thebuilding. I am nothing compared to her. Her station, her status, the snap of her fingers that could have people scrambling halfway around the world… I’m Alessa. A nobody. A lowly intern who comes from a decent background, but that’s the story of a billion people. There’s a reason nothing remarkable ever happens to me.

Julianna peeks at one of the folders. “Alessa.”

Uh oh.Did I forget something? “Yes, ma’am?”

The stack of folders ends up on her desk. She’s not going to look at them? After I busted ass getting here? “You’ve been… quite the presence around here.”

She’s going to fire me, isn’t she?

Because there’s no way that voracious look in her eye is about anything other than firing me. She looks me up and down like a piece of scrap about to be thrown into the trash. I’ve screwed up too many times. They’re cutting me loose. I can say goodbye to this nice opportunity to seriously pad out my résumé and get a decent job with my degree…

“I’m sorry if I’ve done something to disappoint you, ma’am.” I step back. Might as well make it easier to get the hell out of here when she fires me. That way she won’t see my tears. Gotta save some sort of face around here.

“Disappoint me?” Her voice drops, a slight lift at the end. “I’m not disappointed, Alessa. Honestly, if you think I called you here for folders, you’re not as quick as I thought you were.”

“Quick, ma’am?”

“Quick-witted, of course.” She pushes off the desk and comes closer to me. Her perfume magnifies. Her presence is overwhelming. I’m a meager person compared to her cool confidence. This is the kind of woman who gets whatever she wants.

Whoevershe wants.

Why… the hell does that turn me on so much?

I’m a mess. I’m embarrassing. I haven’t been in this woman’s office for two seconds and I’m already fantasizing about things I have no business imagining. Namely, I’m fantasizing about her kissing me. Hard. Against her desk. She’d be a helluva woman to have a first time with. Not a first-time kissing, since I’ve done that before, but a first time… you know…

Fucking.

Don’t wanna think about anything. Don’t wanna have to do anything. Just wanna lie back and let a woman who knows what she’s doing take me. I want my first time to be special, you know? It’s gotta feel good. It’s gotta be with someone I seemyself spending the rest of my life with, or someone so out of this world I must hop on the chance to jump her bones.

Julianna Marcon fills one of those descriptions.

“I’ve had my eye on you since you started here, Alessa.” The woman is a master. She rounds on me, sending me back against her desk. My fingers grip the edge of the mahogany, oak, cherry, whatever thefuckit’s made from, because I can’t be assed to get details about wood correct when my otherworldly boss is looming over me. Is it possible for this woman to have afuck me nowlook in her seductive arsenal? “Something about you caught my attention. I think it’s your different personality. You’re a breath of fresh air in this office.”

I’m blushing so hard I’m going to combust. “I honestly didn’t think you knew me that well, ma’am. Or if you did, you were only annoyed with me.”

“Annoyed? How can I be annoyed when you’re the hardest worker around here? The only one who works harder than you… is me.”

I can’t breathe. She’s coming closer. Her body encloses me. Her lips lower toward mine.I can’t fucking breathe.

“You captivate me, Alessa. That’s not something I say easily. Because I am not an easy woman to captivate.”

Before I can fully think it through, my hand slips, and I stumble forward. Julianna catches me, her hand sliding to my waist with a sureness that sends another surge of heat through me. My hands find their way to her shoulders, and I’m somehow wrapped in her arms, breathing her in. The world around us blurs, and the only thing I feel is her, grounding me in this moment.

If I had a clear mind, I’d tell my boss to fuck off, because this is soooo not legal. Or ethical. Or realistic.

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