Page 7 of The Powerful Boss She Craves

He shook his head. ‘It was the right thing to do. I’m just sorry it took so long for this to be resolved. We will be placing a temporary manager in Winters’ place and, should you wish to resume work at your old position, we’d be grateful to have you,’ Micah added. ‘You’d return to a hefty pay rise and better perks.

‘I’ve done my research, talked to some of your clients, suppliers and your colleagues. You work hard and you are damn good at what you do. The salary increase is what other event planners of your experience earn. I’m sorry to tell you that equal pay for equal jobs was another one of our policies that Winters did not follow.’

Ella grimaced. ‘That doesn’t surprise me.’

‘We’re overhauling this company and we will be making big changes. We’d like you to be a part of that.’

‘Have you fired Pillay as a client?’ Ella demanded.

He grimaced. ‘I want to, and so does my brother, but our lawyers want us to hold off until we gather more evidence. I’ve hired a private detective to track down other women he’s harassed—’

‘I can give you some names of women who left the company because of him,’ Ella said, interrupting him.

Micah nodded. ‘That would be great. If my PI can get them to make a statement, we’ll add their experiences to the case we are building against him.’

‘Intellectually I understand that, but my word should be enough.’ Ella’s voice shook with anger.

He wanted to touch her, to pull her into him to offer her some comfort, but knew he shouldn’t. However, he couldn’t resist taking her hand and squeezing gently before releasing her quickly. ‘It absolutely should be but, unfortunately, it isn’t. I want to nail him, Ella, I really do, but we need to be patient just for a little longer.’

She stared at him, her unusual brown eyes bright with frustration. He knew she wanted to argue, to protest, and was grateful when she took a deep breath and nodded. ‘I’m in the process of moving to the UK and plan to fly out a couple of days after I finish working out my notice here. If he hasn’t been fired as a client by that time, I will not consider returning to work here. And, once I get on that plane, I’m not coming back.’

She’d put him on notice as well. Good thing that he worked well under pressure because he had no intention of losing her. Losing herskill set, he corrected himself... Good people were hard to find.

Her eyes dropped and he followed her gaze, surprised she was looking at his hands. What was she thinking? Could it be she wanted him to touch her? A fireball of lust skittered up his arm and fired its way down his spinal cord. It took all of his willpower to keep his expression implacable, to casually drop his hands when all he wanted was her sexy mouth under his, his hands on her slim body.

Or, and much more likely, she was wondering why the hell he was touching her—an employee, and someone who’d recently received unwanted male attention. Was he insane? What was he thinking?

He clenched his fist. ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have touched you.’

Ella shook her head. ‘It’s fine...um... I know you were just trying to reassure me.’

Reassurance...sure.Let her think that. She certainly didn’t need to know that he’d been slammed by the most intense sexual attraction he’d ever experienced in his life. No big deal.

Feeling hot, he looked around for the remote control to the air-conditioner. Finding it on that credenza, he picked it up and realised that this wasn’t his space—well, technically it was, but it washeroffice—so he asked her if he could drop the temperature in the room.

She agreed and Micah put it on cold and high, and then, remembering Ella’s sleeveless top, settled on a temperature they could both live with. Tossing the remote control on her desk, he pulled up two old office chairs and gestured for her to sit. He sat opposite her and leaned back in his chair, linking his hands across his stomach. He casually lifted his ankle to rest it on his bended knee.

Now came the difficult bit... But he was the company trouble-shooter and it was his job to sort out problems. And, in Ella’s case, that was finding out whether she intended to sue Le Roux International or not. She had a case, and she deserved some sort of compensation, which he was happy to pay her, but he’d like to avoid the enormous legal bills.

He could try and tease the answer from her but he was exhausted and decided on a direct approach. ‘Look, Ella, we both know that if you wanted to you could sue my company, and we’d end up paying you a large settlement because of how badly this was handled. Do you intend to do that?’

She nodded. ‘I’ve thought about it but I haven’t made up my mind yet.’

Fair enough.

Ella stared at a point behind his head. ‘Your offer for me to return to work—provided Pillay is no longer a client—is tempting. I love my job. But I couldn’t work for a company I’m suing. That would be, well, uncomfortable. And, if I emigrate, I do want to leave all this behind me.’

Micah thought this was a perfect chance to segue into making her an alternative offer. One that would provide her with a serious amount of cash without going through the legal system. A solution that would also give him the help he so desperately needed.

Micah pushed his hand through his hair and then tapped the wooden surface of her desk, his fingertips moving at a rapid beat. He saw Ella look down and, when she cocked her head to the side, he clenched his fist. He only ever tapped his fingers when he was nervous and, for goodness’ sake, there was really no reason to be nervous.

‘How would you like to spend the next three weeks doing something other than twiddling your thumbs?’ Micah asked.

Interest flickered in her eyes, along with wariness. ‘And what would that be?’

Now came the tricky bit: How much to tell her? Thadie was a paparazzi’s dream subject—gorgeous, lovely, rich and successful, and she was newsworthy. So far, they’d managed to keep the news of her wedding venue cancellation a secret, and they’d like to keep it that way. If the story was leaked, it would make a splash.How had this happened? Why couldn’t Le Roux organise something as simple as a wedding reception? What was happening behind the scenes?

Thadie was one of the country’s richest women and Clyde, her ex-rugby-star turned commentator fiancé, was a national hero, so the interest in them was sky-high. He needed to keep his cards close to his chest and that meant telling as few people as possible.

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