Page 25 of Bossy Trouble

“Alright then.” She hung up without another word, but that was the only hint she gave to her annoyance.

Which was odd. Because she should have yelled, at the very least.

Maybe she would simply not show up on Monday morning.

I was nearly convinced she wouldn’t, but here she was at my doorstep at exactly 4:30 a.m., holding a cup of coffee in her hand and wearing a classy beige suit that looked like it was printed on her body.

Damn.

I distracted myself by taking the coffee out of her hand and taking a sip. “It’s cold.”

“Well, nothing close by was open, seeing as how it is 4:30 in the morning,” she said. “I had to go to a coffee shop across the city to get it.”

“Hmm.” I looked down at her suit again, resting my eyes on where it nipped in at her waist. “You look nice.”

“I got new clothes.”

“Good.” I took a sip of the coffee. “Image is everything in business, and I can’t have you following me around looking like that.”

“Like what?”

Innocent and sweet and far too tempting for anyone’s peace of mind.“If you look like a country bumpkin, that’s exactly what people will treat you as.”

Her soft lips disappeared into a thin line. The country bumpkin line was deliberately meant to provoke her, to see if she would release some of the fire she was holding on to, but she said nothing, simply nodding.

“Well then, I guess it’s a good thing I got these,” she said, pasting a big smile on her face that looked like it hurt.

I frowned, discontent.

I didn’t like it. Not just the smile but the fact that she wasn’t reacting as intended to anything I said.

Something was wrong here.

Normal Georgia would not have taken all those shots without saying anything back. In fact, normal Georgia wouldn’t be in my home at 4:30 a.m., nor would she have gone halfway across the city to get me a coffee. She would have told me exactly how ridiculous my demands were and set down her boundaries immediately.

But this Georgia, with the tight smile, seemed determined to let me walk all over her.

And I didn’t like it one bit.

I knew it wasn’t because she wasn’t upset.

I could see the fire there, inside her, but she seemed to have chained it with some ironclad control. Was it because she wanted her company back that bad? Perhaps, she thought that the only way to get it back was to do exactly what I wanted. When in actuality, it was the opposite of that.

But no, this was something I noticed even before I took over Moniche. I realized the change in attitude from the first time she came to my office, hesitating at the door and avoiding my gaze. Since the last time we saw each other, she’d matured in looks but apparently also in temperament. She’d become more sedate and subdued.

But her pleasing demeanor was exactly the problem.

She was far too tolerant of bullshit, and that was bad for business. Both her employees and clients would walk all over her. Clients didn’t trust businesses that had no backbone, and neither did employees. The backbone of a business is its CEO. Someone who displayed strength and purpose.

And right now, the only thing Georgia was displaying was the disposition of a mouse.

No, not a mouse. A tiger with its claws removed.

I needed to push her hard to get those claws back.

“What’s on the agenda for today?” I asked as I continued sipping my tepid coffee.

She paused to glance at me. “What do you mean?”

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