Page 11 of Tempting Her Forbidden Boss

‘Overseas.’

‘How convenient for you—out of the country while the temp gets the boot and then can’t find another job in the whole city.’

‘What do you want me to do?’

‘Give me my job back.’

He shook his head. ‘Impossible.’

‘How so?’

‘You think you could sit there knowing they’ve all watched me kiss you like that?’

Kiss you.The words seemed to whisper over her skin, teasing her into greater awareness. She shifted in her seat, reseting her limbs in an attempt to stay in charge of them—and the whole nightmare. ‘It was only a kiss, Mr Carlisle. It was nothing.’ She shrugged.

His brows lifted for a second. ‘You’re not going back out there.’

Damn it, sheneededthis job. ‘It was a moment. That’s all it was. So some geek with nothing better to do made a mini movie with it. Not my fault.’

‘You are not working on that floor again.’

‘You’re not understanding me. I need this job.’

‘And I’m saying it’s not going to happen.’

‘Do you know what this is? Unfair dismissal. Sexual harassment.’

‘That was not sexual harassment.’ He pointed at the screen. ‘You kissed me back. You wrapped your legs around me all by yourself.’

‘But because of that video, I lost my job and I need my job. Because of that video, I can’t get another. The world of recruitment agencies is really small here in Auckland, do you know that? The agents all know each other, all swap from company to company. And they send each otheremails.Would you believe that?’ Dani inhaled. ‘That stupid kiss has cost me everything and I can’t let it. How come you get to sit here in your fancy office and suffer none of the consequences while my life gets totalled?’ She stood. ‘It’s not happening. This is unfair and I’ll prove it’s unfair. I’m going to a lawyer—see if you can say“impossible”to a court!’

She whirled and marched. She had no idea where to find a lawyer, whether she really did have a case, and she certainly didn’t have the money to pay for it but she was bloody well going to find it somehow.

She opened the door but it was slammed shut again—his big hand spread wide on the wood above her head and firmly holding it in place.

‘You don’t shout at me and walk out without giving me a chance to respond.’

‘Watch me.’ She pulled on the door handle with all her strength. It didn’t move.

‘This is what happens. We talk. We negotiate. You’re not leaving until you’ve let me think of an alternative.’

She turned to glare at him and discovered he was way too close. He was right beside her. All she could see was his body—the jacket of his suit was pulled wide by the way his arm was stretched out, revealing the breadth of his chest in the crisp white cotton beneath. His physicality was so potent, all she could feel was the warmth of him reaching out to her. The temptation to step closer was almost crippling—and totally wrong, wrong, wrong.

‘What kind of alternative?’ The woolly feeling was seeping into her head. She lifted her chin to be able to look into his face and the brain lethargy only worsened. His eyes were looking very green.

‘Sit back down and I’ll explain. If you want we can get my HR manager to sit in on the meeting.’

Reality returned with acute vividness. That cow? ‘That won’t be necessary.’

His lips twitched. ‘My PA, then.’

Nope, not the boarding-school matron, either. ‘Look, you and I both know that if you lay a hand on me. I’ll be screaming the place down.’

His face suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree and his smile went so wicked she wouldn’t have been surprised if he had a doorway to a den of sin hidden behind his desk. Or maybe that was wishful thinking—because when he looked like that all she could think about was bad, bad behaviour. Then she mentally replayed what she’d said and suddenly felt a need to clarify. ‘Screaming inhorror.’

‘Ri-i-ight.’ He nodded as if she were a delusional diva he had to humour. ‘All outrage rather than ecstasy.’

She opened her mouth but before she’d thought of a comeback he’d lifted his hand from the door, and was holding it and the other up in the ‘don’t shoot’ position, his mouth in a smile too cheeky to resist.

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