Page 7 of Tempting Her Forbidden Boss

She turned. The office was so quiet she would have heard her now ex-colleagues blinking—if they weren’t all staring totally bug eyed at her. Wow, the ones down the far end had actually risen out of their chairs to get a better look. What on earth was going on?

She tossed her head, determined to hide the freak-out thudding of her heart. So what if her cheeks were purple with embarrassment—she could still walk, right? Okay, it was a run/walk to the door and after that she basically threw herself down the stairs, letting the adrenalin fly to her feet.

The recruitment agency was only a ten-minute walk away. Dani did it in seven. Red cheeked, breathless, trying to suck up the desperation pouring out of her.

Then she had to wait ten extra-long, make-you-sweat minutes.

‘What’s the problem with my file?’ Dani asked as soon as she was shown in.

‘There are a couple of issues.’ The agent wouldn’t look her in the eye. ‘One is misconduct.’

Misconduct?Dani frowned, that she hadn’t expected. ‘What kind of misconduct?’

The woman smiled then—it wasn’t a kind smile. ‘Have you seen this?’ She angled her computer screen so Dani could see it.

Dani gripped her bag, pushing it hard on her lap as the clip started playing. Why was she being shown some security video? What was this all about?

She squinted at the black-and-white grainy images. Oh, no. It couldn’t be.

Nother.

Nothim.

OMG—it was! Alex Carlisle and her, Dani Russo, locking lips in that damn lift. Oh,morethan locking lips. There was neck kissing, and touching andmoving.

Heat prickled all over her body. From every pore popped a painful drop of blood. How had this happened? This just had to be a joke. Was she in a reality TV show and she didn’t know it?

‘Where did you get that?’ she whispered, knowing she was damned.

‘It was emailed to us. I believe it’s been circulated around the company already.’

So that explained the staring, then. The embarrassment engulfed her, swamping the spark of anger she’d felt before.

The agent didn’t stop the clip playing, just sat blandly waiting. Three and a half minutes of absolute agony. Dani couldn’t look away from the screen. Had they been so passionate? Had she really jumped on him like that? Had she been so hungry? And what was that awful music?

Not going to cry. Not going to cry.

She hadn’t in years. And she wouldn’t, not ’til she was alone.

Finally it ended. Dani couldn’t look at the woman.

‘But this isn’t why we’re unable to place you in another position.’

Dani didn’t understand. ‘Pardon?’ Still shocked.

‘This was obviously a mistake and an embarrassing one, but we can deal with it with a simple warning.’ The agent couldn’t be crisper. ‘Not on work time, not on work premises. Understand?’

Dani just nodded. Still unable to process what she’d just seen—they’d been filmed? How was that possible?

‘The reason we’ve had to pull you from the job is because we haven’t been able to get your school records verified.’

Dani jerked. Herschoolrecords? How were they relevant? She had banking qualifications that totally surpassed her achievements at school. Plus she had her security clearance from the Australian bank she’d worked at for the last three years—surely that was far more important than verifying her school-leaver’s certificate?

‘I can call the school,’ she said. ‘I can get them to fax whatever you need.’

‘No, that’s fine. We’ll keep trying.’ The woman smiled sharply. ‘But until we do get it, we can’t put you into another placement.’

It was then that Dani knew and understood. They weren’t trying to contact the school; even if they did there would be some other obstacle that would arise. This was about that video—her fooling with the boss and getting caught. The school-records thing was an excuse. The walls were up. Her anger surged then, pushing back the embarrassment. ‘I can go to other agencies?’

---