Page 7 of Boss Unyielding (Boss 1)

She wondered what it said about her that she’d have preferred the hacking over the filing, and decided it didn’t matter anyway since Rayner had made it clear they would have no authority over her. That and they could probably hack their own stuff if they wanted, she guessed.

She went out to the parking lot and sat in her car. She had brought a sack lunch that Gramma had packed for her that morning, but she wasn’t about to bring it inside with her. She wanted to be taken seriously, and what self-respecting twenty-two year old had their grandmothers packing their lunches for them?

She supposed it could also be said that no self-respecting twenty-two year old would be living with their grandmother in the first place, but moving her Gramma in with her a couple years ago had proved to be an advantageous arrangement for both of them. After her grandpa had died, Gramma needed someone to look after her and take her to appointments now and then.

Farren’s roommate had just moved out at the time, and she had been pretty desperate to find another one if she was going to make her rent, so the timing had been perfect. So what if it was her grandma? It wasn’t like she lived a wild, party lifestyle or brought a bunch of guys home.

She tended to be more of a loner, anyway. She preferred to game online or build computers from scratch than to hit up a kegger. Not that Shea hadn’t drug her to plenty of those over the years, too.

As she took a bite of the Italian sub, a movement at the entrance of Rayner Technologies caught her attention. She watched as the fiery red-head she had just walked in on in Rayner’s office came strutting out.

This woman had the longest legs she thought she had ever seen, and there was a creamy glow about her skin that looked like someone had added the Photoshop oil-painting filter to her in the flesh.

Mr. Rayner seemed to have quite the harem of women, she thought, remembering the gorgeous blond she’d seen him with at the restaurant next to Charlie’s last week.

He seemed so at ease around women. He had certainly seemed attentive to both of the ones she had seen so far, and she wondered if he was some sort of ladies-man. She had experienced first-hand how the guys her age would lay it on thick and say just about anything a girl wanted to hear to get in her pants. She wondered if that was something guys ever grew out of and if Mr. Rayner was that way, too.

Though, he probably didn’t have to be. Hell, he was so good-looking and all-around attractive, she wondered if he even had to say anything at all. She had to rein her thoughts in once again when she started wondering what it would be like to be one of the women on the receiving end of his charms.

When she finished her lunch, she dusted the crumbs off her lap and headed back inside to resume her software explorations. At this rate, she was in for a long week, because she knew it wouldn’t take her that long to figure everything out. This was her world. Getting acquainted with software was a piece of cake, since she could basically write those types of programs in her sleep. She was in her element here, and couldn’t wait to get into the good stuff.

After about an hour, the hallway door clicked open and her back straightened to attention. She watched as one of the men she remembered standing out in the hall earlier came strolling in, closing her door behind him.

“Hello. I don’t believe we’ve been introduced. I’m Dallas Evans. I run the Marketing Department,” he said as he approached her with an outstretched

arm for a handshake.

He had a look about him that made Farren think he was probably a little, or a lot, full of himself. An errant thought crossed her mind that she doubted he would be able to hack his own stuff after all, like she had been thinking earlier.

“Hello. I’m Farren,” she said, taking his hand.

“And what do you do, Farren? I don’t believe I heard about any other new hires other than the one for the Tech Support opening. You have me intrigued.”

She cringed internally at her title before she spoke it aloud, but it was what it was. “I’m Mr. Rayner’s new… assistant.” She managed to choke the word out.

She watched as his eyebrows lifted, not trying in the least to hide his surprise.

“Oh, really? Isn’t that surprising?” he said.

“It is? Why?”

He shrugged. “It’s been a while since Rogan’s had an assistant. For one thing, he’s too much of a control freak to let anyone do anything for him. Then there’s the ordeal with the last assistant he had.”

He played it off like it was no big deal, but this had Farren’s interest piqued. She should have known it was a little strange for this nice office right next to Mr. Rayner’s to be vacant when they hadn’t been hiring for anything other than what she had tried to interview for last week. What was the story with this assistant situation, she wondered.

Unfortunately, she didn’t get a chance to find out, because the door to Rayner’s office swung open in a whir, and Rayner came stalking in.

“Evans, is there something I can help you with?” he asked, but his voice sounded anything but helpful.

“Rogan,” Dallas nodded in a casual, unhurried greeting. “I was just introducing myself to your new assistant here.”

“My new assistant is busy at the moment and can do without the intrusions. Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”

And the Insensitive Ass-hole was back.

Dallas stood in his place as though contemplating a rebuttal, but ultimately backed down from the challenge.

“Farren, it was a pleasure meeting you. I look forward to seeing you around.”

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