Page 24 of Bossy Surprise Baby

Unbidden, my eyes now started trailing down his body, too, tracking down to the tattoos colored on his arm. Why hadn’t I seen those that night? Had I really been that drunk? Or had he covered them up?

But why would he? Was it so I wouldn’t recognize them? That brought me back to my ultimate question. Did he sleep with me intentionally, or was he as lost to passion as I was, both of us being tricked by cruel fate?

One of his hands started moving now, and I forgot all about the question I had. My eyes shot back up to his, entranced by his eyes as desire, not fear, rushed through my body. His hand moved to wrap itself around the back of my neck, pulling me closer. I felt a flush of wetness between my thighs. My heart fluttered at the touch of his hand, and I was powerless to stop the response.

Not even when he tugged me, so I stumbled toward him.

“I mean it, Charlotte,” he said in a low tone that was somehow menacing and sexy at the same time, especially when his eyes dropped to my lips. “You don’t mess with me on this. You hide that boy from me again, and I will find you, and you’re not going to like it.”

It was probably a terrifying threat, to be fair. But my lust-filled brain wanted to whip out a “Wanna bet?”

Because right now, I wasn’t doing a lot of fighting. I couldn’t. At this moment, I wasn’t thinking about the threat he posed to Casey and my parents. I wasn’t thinking about my sister or why I hated him.

I wanted him to kiss me.

And as his eyes stayed on my lips, I saw his expression tighten slightly. His cheekbones were harsh against his skin, as though he were biting down, but before I could analyze his expression, he turned away.

I stood there after hearing the front door close. I knew I should have been panicking because of everything or, at the very least, trying to find Casey to tell him not to say anything to our parents.

But instead, I was standing there embarrassingly stuck between desire and the fear that life as I knew it was over.

* * *

The next timeI went to work, Zane was there. Keith had set up the old boss’ office for him, but he only stayed for a short time, and we met for a brief moment, a somber meeting with him watching us introduce ourselves.

He looked bored the entire time, which only made the rest of the employees more nervous. Millicent, the lady who often took the night shift, could barely stutter her name out.

“Charlie.” I was the last one to introduce myself. Zane’s eyes flickered at me, and I stared back, refusing to be cowed by his disdain. “Assistant manager.”

He held my gaze for a few seconds and then looked away.

“I’m Zane,” he said, glancing around at everyone. “I’m the new owner of this establishment. The first order of business is that there isn’t going to be any wasted stock anymore. If anything gets old but isn’t expired, we’re not throwing it away. I’ll organize with the local shelters to see if we can get send it there. The number two thing is that there will be some construction going on in the next few weeks as we’ll be extending the back.”

“For what?” James asked, which was braver than anyone else in the room dared to be.

“A bar,” Zane responded.

“Oh,” James murmured, and no one dared to say anymore.

“I’m also raising everyone’s salaries by twenty-five percent,” Zane continued. “It should have been raised months ago, but I guess your old boss must have been a stingy bastard.”

“Yup,” Ivanna muttered lightly.

“But keep in mind that with the new bar, there’s gonna be more work. We might hire some new guys to take over that, though, so we’ll see. Any questions?”

We all shook our heads, and the meeting pretty much ended there.

Zane stood up and walked out before everyone else. I left to go back to work too, but Ivanna, of course, hunted me down. I could hear her heels down the hallway.

“He looks familiar,” she stated as she caught up. “Like really familiar.”

My entire body froze. Maybe she noted the resemblance with Casey. The eyes, in particular. Oh, God, was she going to ask? Was I going to have to lie to her too?

“Is he the guy who was at the club?” she continued, and I blanked for a second.

“The guy who was at what club?”

“The Rave. We went there a few weeks ago.” She gave me a conspiratorial smirk. “I saw the two of you getting pretty hot and heavy in the bathroom hallway, so I left you alone. I got his friend’s number, though, just in case he turned out to be a psycho.” She giggled to herself and leaned in before continuing, “So, how was it? He looks way hotter with the lights on, by the way. Did you know he was the new boss?”

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